


Dancing Dreams

by FakeK



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dance, Alternate Universe - High School, Ballet, Ballroom Dancing, Dancing, Dave | Technoblade and Wilbur Soot and TommyInnit are Siblings, Family Dynamics, Fluff, He/Him Pronouns for Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Hip Hop, Long-Haired Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), M/M, Oblivious Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Older Sibling Wilbur Soot, Skateboarding, Sleepy Bois Inc as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 59,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28036221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FakeK/pseuds/FakeK
Summary: Dream realizes that maybe, he doesn't want to be rivals with Techno, but instead, friends. Featuring ballet dancer Technoblade and hip-hop dancer Dream.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Clay | Dream's Sister Drista (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Darryl Noveschosch & Sapnap, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream's Sister Drista & Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Clay | Dream/Dave | Technoblade, Dave | Technoblade & Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Eret & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Zak Ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Comments: 56
Kudos: 542





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wish this wasn't necessary, but alas, it is.
> 
> This isn't shipping the real people. This is shipping the characters they play. And if a Big Man comes to smite me down for writing this, I will delete it.  
> REMEMBER: YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO CLICK ON THIS!!!! IT'S YOUR FAULT IF YOU READ SOMETHING YOU DON'T LIKE.

I still don’t see why I have to go with you,” Dream pouted as his sister dragged him into the ballet theatre by the dance studio. He didn’t understand why his sister would want to watch a ballet. He didn’t remember her ever wanting to before.

“Tommy’s brothers are in it! I was told that they’re really good, and if you hadn’t come along, Mom wouldn’t have let me go,” Drista explained. Dream knew Tommy. A child that often hung around with his sister. He was almost always with a brunette, Dream thought his name was Tubbo. He also knew that he didn’t have a choice to go with his sister. His mom would’ve forced him to go with her if he hadn’t been already dragged along for the ride. “Besides, ballet is way cooler than hip-hop. I don’t know why you like it.”

“Hey! Hip-hop is way cooler!”

“Dream, be quiet! We’re in the theatre now.” Drista was using this against him, wasn’t she?

In the theatre, the lights were low and dim, but Drista seemed to know exactly where to go. Once Drista spotted Tommy and Tubbo sitting in the middle of a row, she instantly ran past everyone in the row. As they went past Dream tried to apologize for the both of them, but they yelled at them anyway.

By the time they stopped at the boys, Dream had grown tired of apologizing. Drista sat in between the two boys while Dream took a seat next to Tommy.

“Aye, Big Man! I didn’t think you’d actually come!” Tommy exclaimed as Dream sat down. Dream noticed that he, Tubbo, and Drista all seemed to be vibrating in excitement.

“Did you think I wanted to be here?” Dream asked.

Tommy made a sound of offense while Tubbo responded for him, “Oh, I think you’ll like it! They’re great at dancing!”

“Yeah, my bros are awesome!”

“I’m a huge fan of Technoblade’s,” Drista commented.

“Technoblade? What do you mean? He does ballroom dancing.”

Tommy laughed. “Yeah, but he also does ballet. I can’t believe you didn’t know that. How un-pog!”

Dream sat there for a minute, contemplating his life and only briefly hearing what Tubbo was saying.

“So Tommy, you still haven’t told me why Phil isn’t with us,” Tubbo said.

“Oh, yeah! Phil said he’d be here at the end of the show to pick us up.”

“That doesn’t answer the question?” Tommy ignored Tubbo.

Dream seemed to come out of his trance as the lights dimmed further until it was pitch black in the room, after a second, lights over the stage came on and a woman was underneath a spotlight.

“Good evening, thank you all for coming to MCYT Dance Studio’s ballet! I’m Niki and the ballet instructor at MCYT. I hope everyone has a good night. Lastly, please enjoy ballet!” Niki finished introducing the ballet and the stage went dark again. Dream thought that he had seen Niki around the dance studio before.

MCYT was the only dance studio in town, and there were classes for all types of dance and ages. It was where Dream and his friends took lessons. Apparently, it was also where Tommy’s older brothers took ballet.

The show began with a girl and boy, they appeared on the stage when the spotlight flickered on. It looked to be Wilbur, Tommy’s brother, and some other girl. Wilbur held the girl as she leaned into his arms, music began playing. After a few seconds, Wilbur lifted her and spun in a circle before releasing her. She let herself be flung out of his grasp with a series of spins, the spotlight stayed on Wilbur as she spun out of the light.

Wilbur did a little solo dance thing. Dream had no way to describe it. After half a minute or so of that, a dim light lit up the rest of the stage.

Around Wilbur were ballet dancers in pairs. As soon as this light came on, Wilbur melted into the dancers, eventually stopping at a girl who had no partner. The spotlight did not focus on this but two spots opposite each other on the stage.

The one on the right focused on a double male pair. Or at least, that’s what it looked like.

One boy wore a gauzy, silky, pale pink knee-length dress, while the other wore a pure white long-sleeved shirt that had bishop sleeves that closed with a cuff. A cravat was wrapped around his neck, once again, it was white.

On the left side, it was a male and female pair.

In fact, Dream recognized the man. It was Technoblade. He was absolutely dashing! He wore an outfit different from the other boys in the ballet. He wore a shirt like the other boy with the cravat, his cravat had gold detailing on it. He also had a short red cape on his back, connected by a simple gold clasp. As Techno’s hair was long (and pink) it was in a bun. That bun was something. If Dream thought the rest of the ballet was magical, the bun was making it ten times better. In the front of the bun was a comb, it was like what Mulan wore, but instead of a flower, Techno's had a golden crown on it.

Everything seemed to silence for Dream, the crowd was silent, and the music didn’t reach his ears. His world revolved around Techno.

He was startled back into reality when the pause in dancing was gone and everything started moving at once. Every pair was doing the same dance, but the two spotlighted pairs continuously moved closer to the middle. With one big lift from Techno and the other guy, the girl was lifted over Techno’s head and back down in a twirl. The twirl stopped for Techno but the lady continued with a big leap and jump. The lady herself then faded into the other dancers. The other man faded into the other dancers as well, leaving Techno and the guy in a dress left. Another danced into the spotlight, it was Wilbur.

They met in the middle, holding out their right hands with their left positioned behind their back. Their hands weren’t holding each other’s, but they were touching. 

Releasing from the circle, their left hands met and physically held each other. First, Wilbur spun outwards before flying inwards and being caught by Techno and the dress boy. Next, the dress boy did the same thing as Wilbur, except he was caught by Wilbur and Techno. The same applied for Techno.

The dress boy faced away from the brothers while they held his arms, trying to pull him back towards them. He eventually broke away, his dress flying behind him, before whipping around in a whirlwind and pushing the brothers down.

Two people from the dancers around them pulled away and dragged up Techno and Wilbur. Techno pulled away from the one who helped him up who then disappeared into the dancers again. Wilbur stayed in the one’s arms, possibly crying?

Dream then remembered that this was ballet, it followed a storyline, it was dramatic.

Techno pivoted in a circle around them before trying to lightly pull Wilbur away. It didn’t work, he was simply pushed away by the girl holding Wilbur.

Techno ran off into the other dancers before returning with a girl dancing, already beginning to do the partner dance with her. While those two danced around, the dancing Wilbur and the girl slowed down until it paused. Wilbur looked distraught as two ladies from the other dancers jumped forward and began pulling on the girl dancer’s arms, she was limp.

As soon as she was ripped from Wilbur, Wilbur ran towards Techno, ripping him away from the other dancer, who fell and was helped up by the same people who took Wilbur’s girl away. All of them faded into the dancers except Wilbur and Techno.

Wilbur seemed to drag Techno through the dance as it grew faster and faster. Techno caught up and began following Wilbur in the dance. Everything was cheery and fine until Wilbur abruptly paused, the music going softer and quieter than ever.

Actually, all the dancers paused and in one big turn, they were all staring at Wilbur and Techno.

This continued for a moment before Techno lifted Wilbur’s right hand above their heads and pulled them into dancing again. The rest of the dancers resumed their dancing, except for a select few. They went forward and got in the brothers’ way. Wilbur and Techno danced around them, sometimes being pushed away by one of their hands. As each one was pushed, they were dragged back into the other dancers.

When there were no blockades left, the music went utterly silent, Wilbur and Techno separated in one big flourish, a second went by and the music returned with one big crash as Wilbur fell to the floor. Technoblade didn’t catch him, he stood standing afterward until he also fell to his knees.

Sliding forward towards Wilbur as the dress boy came back and began slowly dragging Wilbur into the other dancers. Techno’s sliding sped up and soon he was at the edge of the dancers with Wilbur before him.

Techno leaned down, burying his face in Wilbur’s chest. Soon, he rose to a stand, and Wilbur was pulled completely into the other dancers.

Thus commenced the intermission.

The curtains slid out and covered the stage as people in the audience began getting up and going to the bathroom and whatnot. Tubbo and Drista got up while Tommy and Dream stayed. Tommy because he didn’t need to go to the toilet. Dream because his mind was too full to realize what was going on. He finally came out of his thoughts as Tommy started speaking to him.

“Isn’t ballet cool!?” Tommy exclaimed loudly, luckily not getting any looks from the people around them.

“Yeah… it’s pretty cool…” Dream said faintly.

Tommy continued speaking, Dream giving faint, half-hearted answers before the intermission ended and everyone was in their seats again.

Dream had honestly not wanted for the intermission to happen, it disrupted the beauty of the ballet. Interrupting the storyline. But, he did understand the interruption, the dancers needed a break, the stage needed to be reset, the audience needed a break. But,  _ come on _ ! Dream was just glad that it was beginning again.

When the curtains were pulled away again, everything was like it was at the start of the intermission. The music had not yet been started, Techno stood in the center of the stage with hands at his side, spread. All the other dancers surrounded him, stared at him with a hated look. He looked like an outcast.

The dancing began once again, but at every strong beat in the music, the dancers all stared at Techno still standing still in the middle, desperately still.

Someone came up behind Techno and plucked his crown off his head, replacing it with a bigger one. With the way Techno hung his head limply, it looked as if the crown weighed fifty pounds. The weight of the world sat upon his head. He lifted his head as the person sank back into the dancers, and began dancing.

Much of the rest of the ballet went similarly. At one point, dress boy came back, but ultimately, he also went away eventually. Techno, for the most part, danced alone, sometimes flitting between people to dance with. But it always came to an end with Techno growing less and less emotional every time someone has torn away from him.

In the end, Techno was the only one left on stage. Jumping and twirling about before finally running up in one large leap out of view of the audience.

The curtains shut once more, and the audience rose and began clapping, there were even a few hoots and hollers. As the clapping went on, the curtains parted once more to show the dancers in two lines, bowing and curtsying to the audience. Techno, Wilbur, and dress boy stood in the very front row in the middle.

As they bowed (dress boy curtsied), Tommy, Tubbo, and Drista cheered and clapped extra loud. Dream may have clapped a tiny bit louder as well.

After all the bows and clapping, Niki came back out.

“Thanks, for coming, and for all the support of the ballet program at MCYT Dance Studio! It’s very appreciated. See you next dance!”

And with that, the ballet was over and done with.

The show captivated Dream if it wasn’t already obvious. The way each dancer moved was fascinating, but the way Techno moved was on a whole different level. His jumps radiated confidence, and his turns glowed under the spotlight.  _ He  _ radiated grace and beauty and it was amazing and it was all gorgeous. Dream knew the ballet told a story, but he wasn’t sure what story this ballet was telling, all he knew was that Techno’s portrayal seemed above all, ethereal and in solitude. It was immaculately performed. Dream, if you couldn’t already tell, was impressed.

Did he forget to mention the hair? Techno’s pink hair sat on top of his head in a bun was beautiful. If that all the show was—Techno’s bun—Dream would be fine with it.

When it was all over, Drista had to snap her fingers in front of Dream’s eyes before he came out of his fantasy world. Tommy and she made fun of him for this.

“He finally sees how much better ballet is from hip-hop!” she cheered. She and Tommy high-fived.

“He simps for ballet now,” Tommy added.

Tubbo seemed to want to relieve Dream of his pain and butted in, “We’re seeing Phil now, right?”

“Yeah,” Tommy replied, he held up his phone. “He said he’d be waiting by the changing rooms for us and Techno and Wilbur.”

“Drista, can’t we go home now? The ballet is over, and I wanna get home so I can talk to George and Sapnap for a bit.”

“Aw, boohoo. No. I’m stickin’ around, and Mom isn’t going to like it if you leave me alone,” Drista replied.

Dream sighed and followed behind the fourteen and fifteen-year-olds silently. Why was he getting bossed around by people younger than him? Why was he  _ listening  _ to fourteen-year-olds?

He was his own  _ independent man _ , and he was going to decide for himself what he was going to do! And his decision was to go to where Phil was…

It wasn’t his fault that the youngers were going to do the same thing!

The dressing rooms were out of the main theatre room, they took a right, the opposite way they entered. After going down that hall they made another right and after a short walk past a few doorways, they stopped in front of one.

In front of that one was a blonde man wearing a dark green jacket without any zippers or buttons with a lighter green shirt underneath. He had chin-length hair and had a little bit of scruff on his chin.

That appeared to be Phiza, if it wasn’t, Tommy ran up shouting at him. “PHIL!”

Phil turned to the noise. “Calm down, Tommy. There are others around,” Phil said. How does this man control him so well? “Hello, Tubbo and Drista! You’re- Dream? Right? Drista’s brother?”

“Yes,” Dream managed to say without squeaking. “I’m Dream, nice to meet you Philza.”

“Phil is fine.”

Everyone but Dream began speaking to Phil and Dream didn’t catch a whole lot of the conversation, but it seemed to be about the ballet.

“How much of it didja catch?” Tommy asked.

“I came in at the intermission, but couldn’t find you guys so I sat in the back.”

“Man, sometimes I wish I could dance.” That was Tubbo.

“You can still take lessons.”

At some point, the conversation drifted away from Phil, to which he responded by walking over to where Dream was.

“Hey,” Phil greeted. Dream looked up from his phone.

“Hello.” This seemed like it was going to get awkward.

“Did you enjoy the ballet?”

“Yeah!” Dream didn’t mean for his voice to get that loud. “Yeah, it was really cool. I didn’t know Techno and Wilbur did ballet.”

“Ah yes, you’re Techno’s ‘self-proclaimed rival’. I bet that was a surprise to see.”

“Uh, yeah… Are you related to them, then?”

Phil laughed. “Yes, I’m their eldest brother. I do ballroom dancing, but I’m in a different class from Wilbur and Techno.”

“I see, I do hip-hop. Until today, I didn’t know that Techno had any siblings. I knew Wilbur and I knew Tommy, but I’ve never realized they were all related.”

“Yeah, I can see that. We… don’t really look alike.”

Dream let out a wheezing laugh. It surprised Phil. “Yeah, not at all!”

After recovering, Phil began speaking again. “You go to the same school as them, aren’t you in a few of Techno’s classes?” Dream nodded. “You also have the same lunch as them, but you probably don’t see them together then because they go and hide out in the library most of the time. They also don’t have many of the same classes because Techno’s in higher Math and Language classes.”

Behind Phil, the others were making a ruckus. Tommy had said something dumb, presumably, and Dream’s sister had begun trying to hit him while he hid behind Tubbo. After a particularly loud scream from Tommy, Phil turned around.

“BOYS! Calm down! Especially you Tommy, and Tubbo, do you want me to call your mother?”

“Yes, Phil.” Tommy and Tubbo seemed to be in sync, both had their heads bowed in remorse? and were almost in sync with the timing of their apologies. Drista looked very smug, so Dream decided to pick on her.

“Aye, Drista, stop trying to hit people.”

Drista marched over to Dream and grabbed his arm. Then proceeding to use it to hit herself with it.

“OW DREAM! Why’d you hit me!” Drista exclaimed. Tommy was laughing with Tubbo while Drista continued. “I’m telling Mom!”

“I didn’t hit you!”

“CAN EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!” Phil shouted. He was fed up with everybody by now.

It was now Dream and Drista’s turn to say sorry.

A minute went by after their apology and all was quiet until the door to the dressing room opened and out walked Technoblade and Wilbur. This caused a commotion from the fourteen and sixteen-year-olds.

“IT’S THE BLADE!!” Tommy exclaimed. “Big T and Wilbur!” He ran at the two jumping at them, which they both sidestepped. Tubbo and Drista followed Tommy, running up to the two and bombarding them with praise and questions. Drista looked to be going on about being Techno’s biggest fan or something.

All the while, Dream stood next to Phil with wide eyes and a head full of thoughts, yet it seemed empty.

If Techno looked ethereal earlier, he was just as ethereal now, just in a different way. His long pink hair was pulled up into a ponytail which was pushed through the back of a black baseball cap with a crown embroidered on the front. He wore a fully red knee-length jacket with fur lining the collar and bottom. The rest of his outfit was simple, just some black skinny jeans and a collared white shirt.

To Dream, this outfit mixed with Techno was beautiful in literally every way—physically and mentally. It was only now that Dream realized that he’d begun to think Techno was gorgeous, he only knew what he was like from the way he looked and the minimal conversation they’d had. He hoped that they’d have more interactions with each other.

Techno didn’t ever notice Dream, he was obviously preoccupied with other matters. It didn’t really matter though, because Dream was zoned out until Phil called out that they were leaving. Drista had left the crowd and walked over to Dream while Techno, Tubbo, Wilbur, and Tommy followed Phil out the door.

Tommy and Tubbo waved and shouted goodbyes at the two as they followed slowly behind.

The silence that filled the space between the siblings after everyone left was immense. They’d begun walking out and were now outside making their way home. It was dark by now and growing chillier.

It felt like ages before anyone spoke.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” Dream asked.

“Yeah, thanks for bringing me… I know it wasn’t how you wanted to spend tonight,” Drista answered.

“It’s fine. I think I had more fun with you guys than I would have if I’d stayed home, so thank you.”

“Well, obviously! You were spending time with me!” Drista reverted back to herself before following up with, “You just seemed so spacey tonight, were you okay? Or were you just so impressed with the ballet that you were speechless?”

Dream flushed, he was going to tell Drista his feelings first. His stuck-up, no-good, stupid sister who constantly threatened and was mean to him. “The second one… sort of…”

Drista turned to her brother in surprise. “Huh?!”

Dream didn’t answer, instead choosing to begin running, their house was in sight by now. “HEY!” Drista screamed at him, following him in pursuit. Dream laughed, oh, how good it was to have a sister.

A sweet smile was on Dream’s face until he made it home and threw the door open. Drista had caught up by now and was about to tackle Dream to the ground when he put his index finger to his lips, pointing farther into the house. The siblings’ mom was sleeping on the couch while the TV played quietly. She most likely fell asleep while trying to wait for her children to get home, but having to work all day took a toll on her and she fell asleep before she could greet her children.

They took off their shoes after silently shutting the door. Afterward, Drista went into the cedar chest in the corner of the living room and pulled out an orange knit blanket. While Drista laid the blanket over their mother, Dream went into the kitchen and warmed up some water for hot chocolate. For Drista and him.

As he added the cocoa and sugar, Drista came into the kitchen. “Dream, go put on his PJs, I’ll finish up.” She was already clad in her PJs, they were the one pair of matching ones they had. Hers had a white t-shirt with green sleeves and green shorts with black smiley faces on them.

Dream decided to wear the matching set to hers as he walked up the stairs. Dream’s PJs had a black shirt with green sleeves with green pants with black smiley faces on them. All in all, the only differences between their sets were that Drista had shorts and a white t-shirt instead of a black one.

By the time he came downstairs again, Drista already had piping hot cocoa in two mugs. Dream took the leftover one off the counter and said a small thank you to Drista.

By now, they knew the routine. Get some cocoa, put on PJs, hang out in Dream’s room.

Dream sat on his bed, while Drista sat down at his desk. They stayed in silence for a few minutes the only sound being them sipping the cocoa and the sounds of night outside.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Drista broke the silence first.

“Eh, I guess,” Dream started. “Y’know how I have that ‘rivalry’ with Technoblade, right?” Drista nodded. “Well, it was only today that I found out he did ballet. And that he was so good at it! I’m just- questioning why I formed the rivalry in the first place. We don’t even do the same type of dance, so I don't even know if he’d be better at hip-hop than me. I feel like that would be the only plausible reason to form a rivalry with him. Because I wanted to be as good as him.”

She nodded, Drista didn’t quite understand, but maybe her view on this could bring some solace to her brother. She took a sip of her cocoa in thought. “What if—just think about this—what if you formed your ‘rivalry’ with him because you wanted to be friends with him, but didn’t know how to properly approach him without competing.” Dream’s eyes widened. How could his sister think so much about one thing and give that kind of advice if it wasn’t about herself?

“It’s a possibility… I’ve never thought about that before.”

Drista smiled, downing the rest of her drink.

“I’m sleeping with you tonight.”

“Fine…” Dream groaned with a quirked smile. “Come ‘ere.”

Drista’s smile grew as she set her mug down on the desk and came over to Dream’s bed. Dream stood up and pulled the covers back, beckoning Drista to lie down. She did and Dream followed, pulling the covers up as he got comfortable.

When he was done adjusting himself, Drista snuggled closer. Dream’s smile grew even more as he wrapped his arms around her. He remembered when they were younger and would do this with their mom every Friday night after playing games and watching a movie. She would sing them a lullaby too. It never got old.

Tonight, Dream would do with his sister alone. It’d be the best sleep he’d had in a while. If his friends questioned why he wasn’t on their Discord call tonight, he wouldn’t answer. Tonight, he deserved some quality time with his sister because even though their usual dynamic was what he was used to and he loved it, it was nice to be close and snuggly with her as well.

He’d think about what Drista said tomorrow, putting off your problems is good, that’s what they say, right? For now, he was destined to simply be with his family and love them. Maybe, all the confusion he’s had tonight was to just make him realize how he missed spending time with his sis. Maybe it wasn’t, but for now, that’s what he’d believe, so he could sleep peacefully under the cover of stars and warmth and just  _ be _ .

**“Is solace anywhere more comforting than that in the arms of a sister?”** **  
** **\- Alice Walker**


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day in the life of Dream! With some mind-boggling thoughts included.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the great feedback and kudos!

When Dream woke up on Monday morning he realized that after finally putting off thinking and trying to solve his problem this weekend, he instead ignored it completely and hung out with the boys instead. Deciding that since he already would have to think about Technoblade because he was in some classes with him today, he might as well try and solve his problem.

A bit late, considering he developed the problems Friday night. Luckily, he remembered Drista’s advice or at least the important parts. It was something or another about becoming friends with Techno and pretending. Kidding! He remembered. Whether he liked it or not, he was always going to remember it. It had been ingrained into his skull even though it had been said once.

So, like every morning when Dream had a life-questioning problem weighing down on his back, he got dressed, ate some Cap'n Crunch, downed a mug of coffee, and brushed his teeth with the extra spicy mint toothpaste. 

Fairly normal if you asked him.

Dream walked to school after meeting up with George and Sapnap, so as not to deal with Drista any longer than necessary.

When he met up with George and Sapnap today, they were already at it. Fighting, that is.

Sapnap had his skateboard today so he had it laying on the ground with one foot on it. They seemed to be arguing about who was taller again.

Supposedly, Sapnap had worn platforms today because he was an inch taller than George. He then showed George he was in fact not wearing platforms. George called fraud and now they were having a yelling fight in the middle of the sidewalk.

You see, Sapnap had _one_ foot on the skateboard, unmoving. The yelling found Dream’s ears, but what entered was: _“You should totally kick Sapnap’s skateboard so he falls.”_

So he did.

It went as you expect.

The DreamTeam arrived at school a bit later than normal and immediately went to the nurse’s office. A place that had been visited by them a multitude of times over the years.

It was as if the nurse was just waiting for them to come in. In record time she had Sapnap’s knee, elbow, and ear bandaged and had given many warnings to the group before finally letting them go to class.

Sapnap’s pants had torn on his knee and his sleeve had ripped in the fall. He was very upset. He may have been emotionally attached to his clothes, it was good that Skeppy never followed through with that one prank he was going to do on Sapnap… 

He arrived just in time to class, or well, Dream did, he didn’t know how his friends were faring. His first class was Anatomy. To him, it was a dumb class that he thought he was going to like when he joined it but decided he didn’t after a week. Luckily, it was easy for him.

That class went by like a breeze, and onto the next one, he went. Once again easy, but this time it was even easier, it was P.E.

Today, their normal teacher was out and the substitute they did have was horrendous. Literally, they didn’t make them do anything. So Dream spent this class period thinking over Friday.

First, he used the tactic he was taught in his Reading class in eighth grade, figure out what you already know.

Dream knew that he became rivals with Techno after seeing his good scores on math papers and tests and looking at him. He looked kind of pompous with his pink hair, because who had pink hair and wasn’t pompous?? That was in freshman year. He also found out about him doing ballroom then.

Dream remembered being _sort of_ impressed with his cool ballroom flourishes. The only dance he saw Techno do was a tango. It was pretty cool. He then remembered that after thinking this, he immediately scrapped those thoughts and left. Possible evidence?

Dream knew that in sophomore year he thought that Techno could be an interesting friend. He even tried to talk to him, but he immediately got confused when Techno started talking about orphans and blood. He ultimately decided that Techno was too weird for him to try and figure out.

That was what Dream knew, roughly. Not very much, all in all.

At the end of class Dream sighed, a big and heavy one. This was getting nowhere.

His next class was right before class, but he knew no more thinking would be done because he had his lunch and next class with Sapnap and George.

He’d meet them in class though, they came from the opposite direction.

As Dream walked through the halls his mind filled to the brim, he saw pink. Immediately turning around, Dream saw Technoblade. It was simply his pink hair that Dream saw. It was in a long braid that cascaded down his back. Now Dream realized, Techno knew how to _braid_ hair. He braided his hair, presumably. Dream had watched Drista braid her hair and had seen his mother braid her’s. He knew how difficult it was—or, it looked difficult.

Dream just gave Techno five more points in the impressive department.

As Dream turned to face ahead and keep moving again, he was met with a shorter girl with light brown, shoulder-length hair. She wanted to talk to him it seemed.

“Do you need anything?” Dream asked politely.

“Ah, yes! I was wondering if you could help me with the homework in Anatomy. You seem to know what you’re doing. And I know nothing!” she exclaimed.

“Uhm, sure. When?”

“After school if possible.”

“Sorry, I’m busy after school. Bye.” Dream left her behind. He didn’t try to get rid of her because he truly was busy, but he also didn’t want to tutor her. It was a hassle and not worth his time.

By the time Dream got to class he had an idea. He would look up the definition of rivalry. Find out what it legitimately meant!

So, before the teacher could tell him to get off his phone he looked it up. What came up was basically what he expected.

**ri . val . ry** **  
****_noun_ ** **_  
_** **competition for the same objective or for superiority in the same field.**

_Same field._

Dream would consider his ‘rivalry’ with Techno mainly based around their dancing. They took different classes and forms of dance. Uh oh. Dream turned to their studious side of the rivalry. All of that was the same field, so maybe, it was a partial rivalry.

_We’re getting somewhere!_

Sapnap plunged into the desk next to his, with brute force. “Hey, Dream!” he exclaimed. Somehow, he wasn’t late to class. On his other side, George appeared not seconds later.

“Hi,” George greeted.

“What do you guys want? Class is just about to start,” Dream gritted out quietly.

“Nothin’, we were just saying hi,” Sapnap answered. “By the way, on the way to school today we saw Technoblade leaving, what I assume is his house. I never knew he lived so close! He left with Wilbur and Tommy, so I don’t know why it wouldn’t be their house.”

“I guess we kind of just didn’t think about the fact that people we don’t talk to have houses,” George said.

Sapnap and Dream laughed.

“That doesn’t even make sense!”

“Boys, quiet down! Class is starting.” The DreamTeam immediately quieted and turned to face the front of the classroom where the teacher was taking roll call.

Class went by excruciatingly slow, so Dream took it upon himself to plan out the rest of his day. He started with lunch.

But, like all things on his mind recently, it went to thoughts of the ballet. _Techno’s hair… Wait. What did Phil say?_

Phil mentioned Techno, Wilbur, and Tommy eating lunch in the library. Dream smiled devilishly. He had an idea.

Moving on from his idea that was forming in his head, he went to after school. The DreamTeam would probably head to Bad’s house for some snacks and drinks and stuff, then they’d head out with a speaker and either polish a dance routine or perform. Later, they’d head to MCYT for their actual lessons.

Back to Dream’s plan.

This was what he planned. As normal, he’d go with George and Sapnap to get and eat food. Karl would be joining them today. Dream would try to finish food a bit quicker, and then when he was done he’d tell his friends he had something to do. Dream would then have his free ticket to go to the library, where he could then speak to Techno.

Soon, the class was over and there was the mass commotion of everybody trying to get lunch as fast as possible. The DreamTeam had begun to make their way to the vending machine near the gym and back entrance. It was way calmer that way, and it was where they normally got food from. It was also where they would sometimes eat with Karl. Today was one of those days, so Dream wouldn't feel bad for leaving.

From the vending machine, Sapnap grabbed some watermelon thing that he continuously tried to get George and Dream to drink (Surprise, they never did!), Doritos, and a ham and cheese sandwich. George didn’t grab anything from the vending machine because he just threw food into his backpack to bring to school. Today he had an apple, some crackers, and a bottle of water. Karl also brought all his food, saying something a while back about not trusting the school’s food to not be poisoned. He brought a Monster and a single Twix bar. Full meal, right there.

Dream both brought and bought stuff. He brought some banana pudding and a cold pizza slice, but he bought some barbecue chips. Yes, he did eat the pizza slice cold. Thank you for asking.

By the vending machine was a bench. Just one. So when they ate there, Dream would sit on the bench with George, and Sapnap and Karl would sit on the floor. Sometimes, they pulled the bench out from the wall and used it as a table.

Today, it was being used as a table.

Once everyone was settled in their spots, Karl began talking. “So, I have Philosophy with Techno—I still don’t know why I took that class, I understand nothing—anyway—today he was doing as normal, being smart and whatnot. We’re given this partner project dissecting anarchy, and The Missus is picking our partners. I end up with Techno. So, we’re discussing what anarchy is to us and what we think about it. And then, he’s just like, ‘I’m an anarchist.’! And I’m just sittin’ there _really_ confused.”

Karl and a few others called the Philosophy teacher “The Missus”, she knew and didn’t mind. Karl said that they called her that because they knew that her name was abnormal and quite long. Hard for any of them to remember and it seemed regal. She seemed regal, so it worked. She wasn’t even married, but The Missus agreed to it and allowed it. Now, not many people truly knew her real name. Even fewer called her by it. This was, in fact, not what Dream was thinking about. Maybe it would’ve been better than what he was.

Dream’s thoughts were thinking about Techno, but they just heightened tenfold.

“We live in a democracy though,” Sapnap stated.

“I know! That was at the very end of class, and then the bell just rang and he just got up and left. Literally, nothing else was said.” Karl took a sip from the Monster in his hand.

“That guy is so weird,” George said.

“Like you’re not,” Dream replied. George laughed, telling Dream that he was equally as weird.

“It’s kinda pog though,” Sapnap added.

Conversation continued through lunch, every so often a petty fight would start. Soon, Dream was done with his food and was waiting for a good moment to tell his friends that he had to go. To kick it off, Dream started throwing away his trash and putting his stuff away.

Talking paused long enough for Karl to notice. “Have you got somewhere to go?”

“Oh, yeah! I was asked to help the Anatomy teacher with something. I still don’t know what it is.” Dream was glad that he was good at lying.

“What a simp,” Sapnap muttered under his breath.

“‘Kay, see you in Math later,” George said with a slight wave.

“Bye idiots!” Dream called as he ran out of the foyer. From behind him, he heard two indignant ‘heys’ and Karl snorting.

There was about half of lunch left, so around twenty minutes. Dream didn’t want to rush down the halls in fear of getting caught by a teacher and not being able to see Technoblade at all. If there weren't consequences he totally would. Even with all his running down the halls and not getting caught, Dream knew that there was always a first for everything.

He walked at a brisk pace instead, getting to the library across the school as quickly as possible without running. He arrived in two minutes.

Dream paused in front of the library door, now unsure if he truly wanted to go through with this. In the end, his thoughts were interrupted by a laugh, it sounded like Tommy, possibly Tubbo. Dream took this as an initiative and walked through the door.

He’d never really been in the library, just a few times from projects, but even then, it was only for a few minutes just to pick up a book or something. He never truly took a look around.

Knowing he couldn’t just stand in front of the door and not get weird looks, Dream moved over to an aisle of bookshelves, which he stayed in and peered out from the side that faced away from the small group and librarian in the library. The group was Technoblade, Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo. They sat at a table farther back in the library. Dream didn’t think they noticed him come into the library.

That was to the left, which was also where the librarian’s desk was located. On the right side, where Dream was, had aisles of bookshelves. They also lined all of the walls except the one in the far back that had windows and squat bookcases on them and the wall that the librarian’s desk was on. Lines of bookshelves were on Dream’s side of the library.

After taking in the area, Dream decided to not be an absolute creep and actually look at books while he thought about the next steps to take. He hadn’t thought this far into the plan, originally it hadn’t occurred to him that Techno would be with his brothers and his brother’s best friend even though Philza had explicitly stated that he was with _them_ at lunch in the library. Dream truly did have limited hearing.

Dream took up station on the right wall, completely lined with bookshelves, but barely close enough to Techno’s table that Dream could catch snippets of the conversation. No, this was not stalking; this was him assessing the situation.

They seemed to be talking about after school plans, but even with the close proximity and Tommy’s loud tendencies, Dream still had a hard time hear their quiet speaking. Occasionally, Tommy would raise his voice, but the librarian never shushed or quieted him, she simply smiled and continued reading the book sat open in front of her. She seemed to enjoy having the boys there, maybe something to keep interest in her boring day working in the quiet library.

A few minutes later and Dream had actually begun to take a look at the books he was next to. In all honesty, the books he was next to looked pretty interesting, and he wasn’t one to read. He didn’t know why he still stuck around in the library when he knew that he wouldn’t end up going up to Techno that day. There were too many people around to have a proper talk with him.

As he was looking at a particularly interesting book, he heard an exclamation from Tommy. Someone had finally seen him.

“Hey, Dream! What’re you doing here? I’ve never seen you around, and I’m here every day,” Tommy said, now facing him. Tubbo and Wilbur also had turned to him, his perpetual cat grin sat on his lips as per usual. Techno had a slight tilt to his head in his general direction, but he seemed to be pretty spaced out.

Dream decided to take the book with him, maybe he’d like it. “I decided to try and do some reading, I don’t think I’ve done any lately besides mandatory stuff in class. I honestly just felt like it,” Dream easily lied. He didn’t understand how lying came so easily to him.

“Reading is boring, isn’t that right, Tubbo?”

“I don’t know how to read,” Tubbo stated blankly.

“Y’know he’s dyslexic, right?”

“Uh, isn’t that like info you don’t share with people,” Techno said, finally seeming to notice people were talking.

“Ah, Techno welcome back.” That was Wilbur, while Tommy spoke.

“He doesn’t mind. He’s real chill about it. Ain’t that right, Tubbo?” Tubbo was lying face down on the table. “See, he’s fine.”

“Dream, do you wanna join us until the end of lunch? There isn’t much time left,” Wilbur asked.

“Sure, I’ve just gotta go check out this book real quick.” Dream held up the book and then walked over to the librarian’s desk.

“Hello! I assume you’re Dream?” she said.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’ll take your book.” Dream handed her the book and she scanned it. “Oh, I remember reading this book, it was pretty good. I think Technoblade enjoyed it too.”

Dream nodded and took the book from the librarian’s hand and placed it in his bag. “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem, anything to get kids reading more.”

Dream gave her a smile before heading back to the table where Wilbur had taken a chair from a nearby table and pulled it up next to him at the table. He sat in it.

“What class do you have next?” Tubbo asked after finally lifting his head from the table.

“Creative Writing.”

“Oh, yes! I forgot you had class with Techno,” Wilbur mentioned.

“I forgot he was in my class,” Techno said. Techno’s voice was low and gravely. In the nice sort of way, it didn’t sound like the kind of gravely a smoker’s voice would. It was much cleaner and nice.

Dream let out a laugh. “Shows how much you care!”

“Who said I cared at all?”

“Blade, I-I think you need to calm yourself. She’s gonna start throwin’ hands,'' Tommy commented, glancing over at the librarian just watching the boys with a sweet smile.

“Bruhh… That’s just not fair.”

“Anyway, Dream, ma friend! What’s the wor-” The bell cut off Tommy and everyone got up. “Oh, come on!” Tommy sighed but began speaking again. “Well, fellas, I’ll be heading out. Come on, Tubbo,” Tommy said, taking Tubbo by the arm as soon as his bag is on his back.

“Bye!” Tubbo calls as he’s dragged away.

“Do you wanna walk to class together since we’re going the same direction?” Technoblade questioned as he picked up his bag.

“Sure,” Dream answered. He didn’t even have to do any work to get Techno to hang out with him. That’s kind of a pog moment though!

“Well, I’ll see you later, Dream,” Wilbur waved as he walked out of the library.

Dream and Techno soon followed out the door without a word, beginning to make their way to their class.

They arrived in the nick of time, sitting down in their seats and taking their materials out just as the late bell rang.

Creative Writing was always a fun class for Dream, and today was no different. They were having a free write day today. Which they did once every two months. Sometimes they’d be given a prompt, either one for each student or one for the whole class. Today, Mr. HBomb decided to do something different, they’d work in pairs. He was going to choose them, but he’d let them choose what to write about. Dream already knew that he’d be paired up with Techno. Mr. HBomb liked pairing them up because of their differing personalities and writing styles.

And Dream was right, a few minutes later, Techno and Dream had their desks pulled together and laptops, paper, and pens and pencils out.

“What do you wanna do to do today?” Technoblade questioned, his head lying lazily on his hand as he looked at Dream. “Another tragic love story?”

“That was two years ago!” Dream exclaimed. “Stop making fun of it, it was fun to write.”

“Sure, nerd. But, no, what do you wanna write? I’m feelin’ Greek mythology theme, right now. So we could throw in your idea with that.”

“Okay, give me a second.” Dream moved his eyes from Techno’s stunning rich carmine red eyes—AKA #D70040—to his open laptop. “What myth do you wanna do?”

“I was thinkin’ Icarus. It’s basic, but it has some good bone structure to base a story off of.”

“What if we did that, but literal. Literally getting too close to the sun.”

“Ehhh… Sure…”

“We can make it modern, and make them go in a spaceship and stuff too! It’ll be fun.”

“Can we put some Bonnie and Clyde elements in too? I was readin’ up on them recently. They could be runnin’ from the space police or somethin’.”

“Okay, we need to stop adding stuff and get started writing. We’ll write out both our drafts, compare, modify, then write out the final draft.” Techno nodded and began scratching out his draft on his paper. Dream took the other route and opened a Google Doc and started his.

Halfway through writing, Dream realized none of the characters had names. “Techno, we need names for the characters.”

“Uh, Albertine.”

“Why?”

“I was thinkin’ about it, our Clyde can be Augustus.”

“I don’t understand?”

“Does anybody truly understand?” That was all Techno said before returning to his draft. Dream simply furled his eyebrows in confusion and waved his hands about, finally, he sighed and returned to his work too.

Five minutes before the bell rang was when Mr. HBomb told everyone to start cleaning up. As everyone was scooting their desks back to the original positions, scraping and making horrible sounds against the concrete floor, Mr. HBomb clapped, signaling quiet. They silenced.

“Alright, we’ll continue working next class period because I believe that quite a few are still working. I’ve also decided that we’ll begin presenting these next class period too, so those of you who are done still need to be prepared for work. I’m looking at you, Skeppy,” Mr. HBomb announced.

Skeppy who was at the back of the classroom totally not paying attention stopped whispering to his friend, Spifey, as he heard his name. He froze then spoke, “Yes, Mr. HBomb…”

A few kids laughed at him, but everyone quickly returned to the task at hand, clean quick, conversate quicker. The room filled with voices once more. Dream wasn’t speaking to anyone, he was just sitting on his desk waiting for the bell to ring in a minute or two.

Well, he would’ve been, if not for a girl coming up to him. This girl was one Dream knew quite well, she had gone to the same school as him for seven years. She had also changed a lot. She used to be a really sweet girl, always helping others and being kind to everyone. But, in the summer before freshman year she changed. She got this boyfriend that was a horrible influence on her. She got real messed up. He then broke up with her and she became worse, slowly descending into something that was the opposite of her original self. It was sad, but Dream knew what this talk was going to be about.

“Hey, Dreamie~!” she squealed out; her voice wasn’t very cute. There was evidence of her smoking habit in it.

“Hi, Cynthia… Did you need something?” Dream questioned hesitantly.

“Oh, yes. You still haven’t unblocked me. Maybe I’ll start believing it wasn’t an accident!” Cynthia laughed. “Don’t forget.”

“Right, I’ll get right on it.” Dream was not going to get right on it. Luckily, the bell rang. “Bye, Cynthia.” My goodness, get rid of this girl.

“Bye, Dream!”

As he walked to Math, the next and final class of the day, he was joined by Bad and George. They made a quick greeting before finding their seats in the class. Sapnap wasn’t in their Math class, he was in one below. Bad sat next to Dream while George sat two rows up towards the front of the room.

“I forgot my pencil in Creative Writing again, Bad. Can I have one of yours?” Dream asked sheepishly.

“You muffin! I suppose, but make sure to get back to me, you didn’t last time,” Bad answered, handing over a light blue pencil.

“Sorry, Bad…” With that, the class began.

Math wasn’t slow, nor was it fast, but still, Dream just wanted the school day to end. There was still study hall though. Sadly, Dream could not just work on figuring out the best song for the DreamTeam’s next performance, He actually had some homework to do.

As Dream trudged through the halls back to his Anatomy classroom for study hall he heard whispers of someone threatening Techno. For what? Dream had no idea. He didn’t understand why someone would want to fight Techno. He was known across the school for stabbing a kid with a pencil in seventh grade, and later tackling someone who disrespected reading. Supposedly, the latter had been Tommy, but still, a dangerous man. (Everyone looked dangerous against Tommy.)

By the time he got there, people were still trickling in. Sapnap, Karl, and Bad were in this study hall group. He just didn’t walk with Bad because he had needed to use the bathroom and didn’t want to hold Dream up. So, Bad was still not in the room yet, but Sapnap and Karl were. They sat side by side on the right side of the classroom in the third row. Their usual place seeing as they could choose where they sat in study hall. Dream sat on the other side of Sapnap while Bad sat behind Dream.

Bad arrived roughly a minute after Dream sat down. As per usual, everyone got started on whatever they had to do fairly quickly, and their teacher worked away too unless someone came up to ask a question. Dream was glad that his study hall was full of moderately responsible people unlike George’s.

Sapnap leaned over to Dream as he worked on the math homework. Completely focused on the sound of Bad spinning his pen around his fingers, the tapping of laptop keys, and the scritch-scratch of pens and pencils on paper. Sapnap whispered with as little suspicion as a sixteen-year-old boy could, that meant none. “Does Bad know that we’re going over to his house after school?” 

Dream shrugged, he wanted to maintain his focus while he had it, and Sapnap could just ask Bad, who was literally one seat behind Dream.

The first bell of two rang and about a third of the class left to get on the bus. The rest began picking up their things and began talking to each other. It was the end of the day and all the pent-up energy Dream had in him waiting for practice was bursting at the seams.

He sped through showing things into his backpack and stood up, joining Sapnap and Karl who were waiting for Bad to finish putting his things neatly into his bag. Dream bounced on his heels in wait.

“Bad, did you drive your car today?” Karl asked.

“Yeah, I picked up Geppy today, so if you muffins are heading to my house after school you’ll have to walk because I have to drop him off again,” Bad answered.

A boy appeared at the doorway to the classroom and Karl waved a goodbye. “Bye guys! I’ll see you tomorrow. Jimmy and I have things to do.”

Sapnap pulled Karl into a hug, faking tears as he leaned against him. “Karl, honey, don’t leave me. I can’t have you leaving me for another man again!” Sapnap complained.

“What the honk, Sapnap. Let go!” Karl struggled away from Sapnap after a quick return of the hug. Sapnap released him as the second bell went off, and everyone filed out of the classroom in urgency to leave the wretched school for home.

“C’mon, Dream! George is going to leave us behind!” Sapnap took hold of Dream’s wrist and pulled him along. Dream ran along with him through the halls as a teacher or two yelled at them to walk, Sapnap and Dream laughing all the while.

As soon as they were out of the school grounds Sapnap got onto his phone as they walked (in Sapnap’s case rode) in the direction of Bad’s house. He was going to shoot a text to George making sure he was going to Bad’s.

He was and soon caught up with the two by running. The two paused as George met them on the sidewalk, leaning onto his knees, panting. Sapnap jumped off his skateboard to wait.

“How unathletic, George. So pathetic,” Sapnap said. He then turned to Dream. “Can we kick him out?”

“No, not yet. Not until he tells us he loves us, at least,” Dream answered.

“Fine…” 

“Guys, it’s not going to happen!” George declared, standing up straight again.

“Oh, George~! Give me a kiss!” Dream called, as George screamed while running away.

“No, Georgie give me a kiss!” Sapnap followed as he sped up on the skateboard.

They ran until they got to Bad’s house, where they paused on his front porch. Taking a seat on the steps, the original point of chasing George was out of their minds and what was left was laughter. Dream started it with a wheezing cackle. Sapnap, then George followed, and soon Dream was laying on his side coughing.

George recovered first and stood up, swiping the spare key from its place beneath the doormat. Sapnap was next, trying to drag Dream to his feet. Dream soon complied to the tugging and stood up as George unlocked the door and entered the house.

Sapnap muttered something about Dream being a tea kettle as they entered the quaint, yellow house. Lucy, or as Bad called her, Rat, greeted them at the door with chipper barks and yips. She knew them quite well with how many times they’d been over there.

Each boy patted her or rubbed her head before Sapnap picked her up and carried her along with them to Bad’s studio/office.

In the room, they set Rat down as she walked off to lay in the miniature bed that lay in the corner of the room for her. The room was where they met up before performances and got ready for them. Sometimes they’d go to Sapnap or Dream’s house to do this, but it wasn’t frequently.

This was where they began switching the gears in their heads from school time to dance and hip-hop. It was time to transform.

**The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.** **  
****\- Frank Herbert**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DW, you will get to see more interactions between the 2 in later chapters! Maybe not the next one though...
> 
> I have a few little things I would like to ask... These are those questions.
> 
> 1\. I don't know if anyone noticed, but I didn't literally curse during that whole chapter (or the last 1). If you did notice it, give me some feedback about it. Would you prefer it if I did curse or not? I don't mind either way, but there are a few curses I will not use.
> 
> 2\. Would you guys like it if I had a Twitter for this? I would post about updates, ideas, and possibly little snippets of what I was working on. I also would explain each of the dances used in the story. I did actually think them out!
> 
> 3\. This is simply a rant. Feel free to skip.  
> WHY THE HECK IS THERE NO SNOW. IT IS ONE DAY UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVE AND IT HASN'T SNOWED ONCE! I DON'T EVEN LIKE SNOW AND I THINK THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME. IT WAS 50 DEGREES FARENHEIT LIKE YESTERDAY. >:(


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream and his friends do some dancing and hang out with Bad while Dream tries to act like a normal person. Spoilers! He can't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not an excuse for over-explaining outfits. N-nope, not at all.

Against the right wall are three crates. The one on the far left had a smiley face painted on the top. The one in the middle had two white circles filled with black, and the last one had a simple flame painted on it. The boys each walked to their respective boxes.

Dream went to the far left box and took a key from the front pocket of his bookbag, unlocking the box. The boxes held their clothes and stuff used for street performances, as to not get recognized by students from school The other two didn’t try to hide it as much as Dream, but they were less popular than him.

In his chest were a pair of black joggers that had a multitude of pockets lining them, a tight-fitting, slim sleeveless turtleneck, and a neon green cropped track jacket. It wasn’t really a track jacket, but that was honestly the best way to describe it. There was also a pair of shoes, a white mask, and a pair of fingerless black gloves in the crate, but he didn’t pick those up yet. He did take a pair of white socks out of the box though.

Finally, he walked out of the room and across the hall to the bathroom, where he’d change.

Dream tore the green hoodie he had worn to school off, taking his shirt underneath it with. His shoes were taken off at the front door, so his light blue skinny jeans came off with no hesitation. All his clothes were in a pile on the floor (Except his boxers!) within a minute.

He picked up the pants from the top of the pile sitting on the sink, his change of clothes. Pulling them on, he connected the two chains on them and the strap that went around his right thigh. Next, he pulled the turtleneck out and slipped it over his head, tucking it into his pants seamlessly before stretching the wrinkles out. Finally, he pulled his track jacket out and slipped it over his arms.

The fabric was simple cotton, it had a lining that kept Dream warm, and then there was a second green cotton lining so the warm one didn’t show. The sleeves were green just like the rest of the jacket with two white stripes leading down to the cuff. They were balloon sleeves. The crop wasn’t extremely short—Dream still had to keep warm—there was about an inch of open turtleneck before the waistline of his pants showed up. On the back was a large white circle with his signature smiley face on it. The same was on his crate and mask.

By the time he left the bathroom, Sapnap had gotten changed in the downstairs bathroom, and George was ready to go into the bathroom Dream was previously in. He did.

Sapnap wore his white bandana as normal, and he kept his style—they all did. He wore black joggers, similar to Dream’s, but he had orange stripes lining the sides of his. He also had the strap and chains. A few loose white straps were hanging off the back, that was on purpose. The joggers had been pushed up to mid-calf and black and long black and white checkered socks were visible. The sleeves of his jacket matched the socks and the body of the jacket was simply black. Like Dream’s jacket, there was a symbol on the back, Sapnap’s was fire. His shoes were white tennis shoes built for dancing, they had flames covering the toe.

Beneath the jacket, he wore a t-shirt that had a creamy yellow to dusty orange ombre. It was originally a long sleeve shirt, but Sapnap didn’t like it like that so he cut the sleeves to about the middle of his upper arm.

Dream passed by Sapnap sitting on his crate putting on his shoes, and headed to his crate, taking out the final items. His mask, shoes, and his gloves. He did the same as Sapnap, closing the crate and sitting on the top.

He pulled on the gloves and began lacing up his shoes.

The shoes were actually black combat boots. They had a thicker sole than other shoes, but it wasn’t super platformed—that would make it hard to dance. Black laces went through silver eyelets and laced up just below his knees.

Oftentimes, he took quite a while to lace the boots because they were of similar hardness as putting on skates. You had to unlace two or three of the rows before being able to slide your foot in and lace them back up, tightening them all the while. Shoving your foot in was also a process. Luckily, Dream had a process he had perfected, and the boots were made of a very strong yet flexible and stretchy fabric, providing enough stretch to get his foot through without too much finagling. The material of the shoes was also nice and not cheap. It was worth it for the best boots he could find.

Just as he was lacing up his second boot, Rat leaped up from her spot on her bed and raced downstairs, barking. Dream heard the front door open, Bad was back.

A minute later and Bad was in the room with Sapnap and Dream, holding Rat.

“Hi, how long are you gonna stay before heading out?” Bad greeted, sitting at the desk in the room. The room was also Bad’s office where his computer was. He often made custom songs for the DreamTeam to dance to.

“Oh, wanting to get rid of us already, Bad? Have you got a date? Possibly with Skeppy?” Sapnap said after looking up to smirk at Bad.

Bad flushed and waved his arms in front of him. “No way! I love Skeppy and all, but he’d never go on a date with me!”

“Sure, you think that, Bad.”

Dream decided to actually answer the question instead of interrogating him. That was after he finished laughing. “I don’t know yet. We need to be at MCYT a bit before seven. It’s 3:43 right now, so we’ll probably get out of your hair a bit after four or somethin’.”

Bad nodded. “Is George in the bathroom?”

“Yes!” George called from the bathroom. His eyes may be broken, but his hearing was apparently exceptional.

Dream nodded, “Yeah, he’s in the bathroom.”

“I figured…” Bad said before taking a stand again. “Do you guys want some snacks? I think Mom made some banana bread yesterday.”

“Not muffins?” Bad shook his head. “I guess so,” Sapnap decided, following Bad down the stairs. Dream was going to follow, but he heard a shout from the bathroom.

“Are you guys leaving me?!” George exclaimed, rushing out of the bathroom.

“Yes.” Dream raced down the stairs, wheezing from the shouts heard behind him. George wasn’t fully dressed.

So, a string of almost curses and stumbling about was heard above him. From the kitchen, he heard Bad shout ‘language!’ up towards the ceiling. The cursing began to quiet down, and Dream watched George hop down the stairs with his pants on backward. That made him become even more like a tea kettle.

By the time George had made it into the kitchen, Dream was leaning heavily against the counter, slamming his fist down and wheezing his lungs out. Sapnap looked about ready to cry, and even Bad was laughing quite a bit—after reprimanding George for cursing.

After two minutes, everyone had calmed down. Everyone meaning Dream, mainly. It was only now that someone spoke up about George’s pants.

“Soooo… George, ya gonna go out with your pants on backward?” Sapnap asked with a grin.

George looked down at himself quickly, instantly realizing that what Sapnap said was indeed true. He blushed a bright red and walked away slowly to the downstairs bathroom, muttering all the way.

George’s outfit was, once again, kind of similar to Sapnap and Dream’s. Instead of a long-sleeved jacket, he had a jacket that only went to his ribs and the sleeves went just below his elbows. They bunched up like Dream and Sapnap’s. It was a very pale, almost white, cream color. On the back was a bright white rectangle outlined in a thicker red. He wore a blue short sleeve shirt underneath it. It was tucked into his pants. George’s pants were quite a bit different from Dream and Sapnap’s, his were a dark blue and a tad baggy until it slimmed down to skin-tight on his calves downward. The shoes he wore were nothing special, simple black boots that went up to mid-calf with two buckles wrapped around the tops.

When George came back, Bad had four plates of banana bread out, one placed in front of each seat at the breakfast bar. Bad had taken a seat on the end, next to Dream. Sapnap had left a spot in between him and Dream for George. Which he sat in when he was back.

Sapnap ate the bread with his hands, George and Bad used forks, and for some strange reason, Dream used a spoon. He was utterly destroyed for that. Like, what a weirdo. Who does that??

“I just don’t understand why you do it. It doesn’t make sense!” Bad exclaimed, midway through the argument and teasing. “I’m not trying to insult you like the other muffins, but it is quite strange.”

“What if _you’re_ the weird ones. Not using a spoon. Can’t imagine it,” Dream argued.

“You’re just jealous that you can’t eat like the rest of us,” George commented.

“Hey! That’s offensive to me too. And I eat normally. It’s bread, you eat it with your hands,” Sapnap said.

“Now _that_ guy is weird.”

“HEY!”

Dream laughed, enjoying the fun they were having. He knew they’d often do these things together, but it seemed extra special when it was taking place at the front of his mind. Which had previously been taken over by confusing and countering thoughts about a certain dancer. Dream couldn’t switch his mindset back now! He’d worked so hard to stop thinking about it!

Dream smacked his hands against his cheeks, letting out a groan. Everyone turned to him looking very concerned and confused.

“Ar-are you okay, Dream?” Sapnap asked.

“Oh, I’m fine. Why do you ask?” Dream said confused.

“Nevermind…”

Bad checked his phone. “Guys, it’s 4:06 now,” he announced.

“Oh, okay. Do you guys want to head out now?” Dream said, turning to the two on his right.

An agreement was settled on and the DreamTeam set out back upstairs. They still had a bit to grab before they could leave the house, and they needed to stretch.

The three took up spots in the room and moved through stretches with ease. It was still necessary so no one hurt themselves while dancing. As each one finished they collected their belongings from their crates.

Dream went to his chest, taking the mask off of the top of it and securing it to his head. At the moment, it sat at the side of his face. He’d move it to the front before they left.

Sapnap took his pair of gloves and pulled them on, wiggling his fingers once they were situated inside. George did the same, but he also put a pair of large circular sunglasses on his head. Afterward, he picked up two wireless speakers. They weren’t super big, but they were big enough that they produced loud sound and good quality. Sapnap would have gotten them, but he can’t be trusted with them on his skateboard.

Sapnap grabbed the bubble gum. He was the only one who liked bubble gum. George and Dream preferred mint.

They all picked up bags off three hooks hanging on the wall, replacing them with their school bags. They all took their phones from their school bags and took them with them.

The bags all corresponded to their ‘colors’. Dream’s was black leather (It wasn’t real leather) with green accents. Sapnap’s was red leather with a checkered pocket on the front. The straps were also checkered. George’s backpack was the same blue as his shirt, except it was a shade darker. It had white and red accents.

Finally, they were ready. After Sapnap’s bag was filled with snacks and water bottles, that is.

Dream slid his mask over his face, it covered everything except for his chin and his bottom lip. _Now_ they were ready to head out.

Sapnap picked up his skateboard from where it leaned against the house and set it down on the sidewalk. George and Drema followed.

“Bye, guys!” Bad called from the porch.

“Bad! You ruined the immersion!” Sapnap yelled at him, turning his head. “We looked so cool before…” Sapnap was officially pouting.

“Yeah, yeah. Shoo!”

The DreamTeam laughed as they continued down the street.

“What do you guys want to start with?” George asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe… Sunflower?” Sapnap suggested.

“You always want to do Sunflower.”

“Yeah, so? It’s fun and one of our favorites. You can’t deny the greatness of it. We get good clout for it too.”

“Any other ideas?” Dream remarked.

“Ooh! We could do “It’s Tricky!” We haven’t done it in a while. It’d be super fun! ” George exclaimed.

“No!” Sapnap whined.

“Actually, that sounds like a good idea.”

“Dream! That’s not fair!”

“Sapnap, yes it is. Two to one, “It’s Tricky” it is.”

“Fine, I see how it is. I get to choose the place then!”

George and Dream agreed and followed Sapnap, they had not been told where they were performing. Dream started scrolling through their Spotify playlist to find “It’s Tricky.”

They arrived at the spot four minutes after Dream found the song. It wasn’t one of their more common locations, but it was good nonetheless. In fact, it was nicer than some of the ones they performed in more. It was just so out of the way that it wasn't worth it to go that far, but today Dream, Sapnap, and George all seemed to be in good moods so the walk was fine.

They immediately began setting up.

George set down the speakers he carried and gave Dream an AUX cord. He connected it from the speaker to his phone. Sapnap was setting out their “Offering Bin.” It was simply a box they had painted bright yellow, and in dark blue construction paper, “Offering Bin” was spelled out in all caps. It was made by Goerge and wasn’t very pretty. (At all.) Sapnap set that out a few feet from where they’d be dancing. Their bags would sit behind the speakers so they were out of sight. Can’t have anything being stolen.

Lastly, George took out his phone and opened Twitter. It was already on the DreamTeam’s Twitter account. He sent out a Tweet saying they were performing and where.

A few minutes later and people began trickling towards them. It wasn’t just their fans and followers, there were others just wanting to see what was going on. The three had been doing solo dances to lure people in while they waited for more people so they could perform the main routine. They typically asked for a song suggestion and tried to do some improv for it on the spot.

Sapnap took a request, then Dream, then the turnout seemed large enough to start the main thing. So, George went over to the phone at the end of Dream’s made-up routine and as soon as that song ended he brought up “It’s Tricky.” Sapnap and Dream took to addressing the crowd.

“Alright! No more requests for now. We’ll be starting the main routine,” Dream announced. As soon as the song was up Goerge ran up to the other two boys, already in their positions. The song didn’t have much of a lead-up so he had to do it quickly.

The routine was quite simple, it could be performed by any number of people, most of the time. All three of the boys had fun with it even if Sapnap denied it.

_I met this little girlie, her hair was kinda curly_

A slide to the left and arm wave.

_Went to her house and bust her out, I had to leave real early_

The same move reversed.

 _When I wake up, people take up mostly all of my time_ _  
_ _I'm not singin', phone keep ringin' 'cause I make up a rhyme_ _  
_ _I'm not braggin', people naggin' 'cause they think I'm a star_ _  
_ _Always tearin' what I'm wearin', I think they're goin' too far_ _  
_ _A girl named Carol follows Daryll every gig we play_ _  
_ _Then D dissed her and dismissed her, now she's jockin' Jay_ _  
_ _I ain't lyin', girls be cryin' 'cause I'm on TV_ _  
_ _They even bother my poor father 'cause he's down with me_

This was one of the DreamTeam’s favorite verses of the song. They hadn’t thought about the lyrics of the song the first time they heard it, plainly thinking it’d be a good song for dancing—it was. The second time and they looked them up and found them out.

_It's tricky, t-t-t-t-tricky, t-t-tricky, tr_

The chorus, of course, was very fun. A repetition of the same move quickly.

But sooner rather than later, the song ended and so did the dancing, and people began trickling out of the area. As was typical for their performances, short but sweet.

The DreamTeam all shared smiles, panting out breaths as they formed a triangle to end off with their signature DAP greeting, while cheers and such were heard from the gathered crowd. In the end, they gave each other double high-fives.

Before long, their things were packed up, and they were heading to a nearby park—they still had a while before their class (it was only 5:00).

The three boys found a secluded part of the park and sat down in the grass. Dream stretched himself out across it with George while Sapnap continuously flipped over. At once, they seemed to all stop and stay silent, staring up at the sky.

It was a gorgeous indigo, it being fall and 5:00, it was already darkening. The day had been sunny and warm, but now it had begun to cool down. The grass on Dream’s back was felt through his jacket. It was cold, but it wasn’t unpleasant or unwelcome. It was exactly what he needed after performing.

He let his eyes fall closed, but as soon as they shut images flashed over his eyelids. Pink, hints of gold, red, and white. Techno.

Dream couldn’t escape him. He knew that until he became true friends—or whatever Dream wanted with him—the visions wouldn’t fade. They’d stay. Dream was 99.9% sure they would. And that’s a pretty high percent.

After another moment, the colorful vision faded to black, and Dream opened his eyes, sitting up.

“Hey, Dream, it’s time to head back to Bad’s. We gotta get ready for practice.” George said as he stood up.

Dream’s eyes widened. He thought he was there for a few minutes. How did a whole hour pass? Nonetheless, he brought himself to a stand after his stuff had been picked up. He slid his mask back into place because it had gone askew while he laid on the ground.

When he was finally standing, they began making their way back to Bad’s house.

“Are you alright, Dream? You usually don’t fall asleep that quickly,” George said, turning his head to face Dream as they walked on.

“Oh… I didn’t even realize I fell asleep,” Dream explained.

Sapnap laughed. “How do you even do that!?”

Dream shrugged. “I guess I was just thinking too much, I guess.”

“About what? Or maybe… who~!”

“Ugh! I hate you all!”

“I didn’t even say anything!”

“You were thinking it! I know it.”

“What? I can’t help that you’re totally simping for someone.”

“So… who is it?” Oh my gosh, they were acting like seventh-grade girls.

“I don’t like him like that! I’m just thinking about becoming friends with him. I feel like being rivals isn’t what I want.”

“So it’s Technoblade.”

“I never said that! It could be Illumina.”

“You wouldn’t have reacted like that if Sapnap guessed wrong.” 

“I hate you.”

“We know!” Somehow George and Sapnap managed to chorus it together.

“It’s pretty pog though. Giving up your old ways for new,” Sapnap decided. “Also, why would we ever think you’d become friends instead of rivals with Illumina. Like, you two actually do the same type of dancing. It’s your thing to be rivals.”

“I suppose…” Dream agreed.

“What made you have this sudden realization?” George asked.

“Well, I went to a ballet. Techno was in it.”

“Is that why you weren’t able to talk to us Friday? Because you just said you had ‘stuff.’”

“Yes…”

“So you _do_ want his dick.”

“Where did you get that!?” Dream exclaimed. “And, no, I don’t want his dick.” Sapnap and George laughed.

“Alright, Alright!”

The rest of the walk went similarly. George and Sapnap teasing Dream, while Dream threatened them.

By the time they got back to Bad’s house, Bad’s mother’s car was in the driveway, meaning his mom and little sister were home.

His family was so sweet. Bad’s little sister constantly tries dancing and stretching with the DreamTeam when she's home when they do stuff. She is so cute. His mom would bring snacks to them during sleepovers and when hanging out. Bad’s friends all loved them. Bad loved them too, but he often got embarrassed by them unintentionally. To which the DreamTeam laughed at his misery.

They entered the house and kicked off their shoes and picked them back up. Bad’s mother had a rule of taking off their shoes before going further into the house. Dream took his mask off from his face and shouted a greeting to Bad’s mother and sister who were in the kitchen. Bad was likely in his studio room working on homework or a project, so they went upstairs.

Sapnap was in the lead and barged into the room when they got to the door. Evidently scaring Bad by the yelp heard from him afterward.

“Sapnap! That wasn’t nice!” Bad exclaimed, sliding his headphones off his ears.

Sapnap shrugged and went to his crate as George and Dream filed into the room.

“At least two of you muffins are sort of polite…” Bad grumbled.

“FU-” George screamed.

“LANGUAGE!” Bad screeched over him.

They heard a call from down the stairs. “Are you boys alright up there?” That was Bad’s mother. Uh oh. Just because she was sweet most of the time didn’t mean she couldn’t be scary sometimes, and when she was scary, she was SCARY.

“Everything’s fine, Mom!” Bad called back, sending a glare to the three who were laughing at his misery. Dream was wheezing.

“Okay, please be quieter. I’m trying to feed your sister.” Dream had forgotten what time it was, and then realized how badly he and the boys needed food in their stomachs.

Bad nodded, then noticed his mom definitely couldn’t see he did. He blushed before finally answering. “Yes, mom!”

As two of the boys began to calm themselves, Dream did not. The nod took Dream even farther off the edge and he continued being a tea kettle.

“Dream! Stop!” Sapnap exclaimed. He pulled Dream up from where he’d leaned down onto his knees. “Stop laughing! It wasn’t _that_ funny.”

“Yeah, Dream. Don’t laugh at my problems! You’re just as bad as those two muffins!”

Dream calmed down and George was back from changing into regular clothing. Sapnap went into the bathroom after him. When Bad’s family was home they didn’t use the downstairs bathroom, just the upstairs.

“So you’ve calmed down?” George questioned.

Dream didn’t answer, and instead went over to his crate and pulled his stuff out of it. Now waiting for Sapnap to finish. George took the longest out of the three, but Sapnap often took quite a while in the bathroom. Dream didn’t take particularly long, but he didn’t take a very short amount of time either.

He took off all the non-revealing items and put them back into his crate. His gloves, mask, shoes, jacket, and bag all went into the box. He took his phone out of the bag before tossing it in.

Dream unlocked his phone to see three messages from his sister and one from his mom.

**sis :P**

**what time r u getting back tonight???** **  
****also bring some banana bread from Bad’s home** **  
****ik it's there it was on his Snapchat story**

Dream answered back and opened up his mom’s message.

**Mom <3**

**Make sure to get some bread on the way back from practice <3**

Dream didn’t bother answering but made a mental note to get the bread from the store on the way back home. Luckily, he had some cash in his book bag to use.

Soon after, George was done in the bathroom and Dream went in and got changed. When he came out Sapnap and Goerge were picking up their things to leave. He followed suit.

When they went downstairs Dream asked for half a loaf of bread from Bad’s mom to which she complied. She had made quite a lot after all. Once the banana bread was situated in his bag and his shoes had been put on, they left with a quick goodbye to Bad and his family.

The walk to MCYT was quick and filled with cheery banter. Sapnap was filled up with want for the Christmas season coming up, while George was dreading the cold season.

“I made my Christmas list the day after my birthday!” Sapnap proclaimed.

“We know, you tell us this all the time,” George complained. “It proves how self-centered you are.”

“I am not self-centered! I have my priorities set straight. And I already have ideas for what to get you two for Christmas. They’re pretty pog.”

“Sapnap, it’s the middle of October…” Dream said.

“Never too early to plan. I already got my Halloween costume sorted, so the next project is Christmas.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“What about Thanksgiving?” This is what Dream didn’t understand. No store EVER sold Thanksgiving decorations. Like, is it not the holiday in which the United States of America figured out that they could actually survive? Isn’t that like, kind of important?

“Doesn’t exist.”

Dream sighed, why were his friends like this?

By the time they arrived at MCYT George and Sapnap were deciding if Thanksgiving was even a holiday. Why? Dream did not know.

At this time, Dream remembered a vital thing. Technoblade was just getting off practice now. He smiled, there was a possibility he could conversate with the pink-haired fellow. Maybe even insinuate being friends with him. Dream let out a laugh at the thought. His friends looked at him oddly before they entered the building.

As they made their way to the hip-hop section of the expansive building Dream would check around for a glimpse of Techno. He knew he wouldn’t see him, Techno was probably not finished with the end briefing from his ballroom dancing director.

They had made it to the hip-hop section of the studio and then made their way to the locker rooms. As per usual, they enter the second one and turn to the left once inside. It was where their things were located.

Punz, Purpled, and Ponk were already in the locker room. Punz was, as usual, had headphones on while he got ready. Purpled and Ponk were sitting on a bench together as they tied their shoes, speaking quietly.

In Dream’s mind, he thought of them as “The Ps” when they were all together with no one else. They did all have names starting with P. It was a realistic name.

Punz was on the right side of the room, keeping to himself as normal. He wore a white hoodie with black stripes down the side. The hoodie wasn’t quite a normal hoodie length, it was a bit shorter and quite baggie. His pants were simple ripped up jeans and he wore a gold chain around his neck. He had yet to change into his practice clothes.

Purpled, as his name suggested, really liked purple. As such, he wore it a lot. Today he wore a purple tank top and some black joggers. His shoes were some dancing tennis shoes which were also purple. He was already in his practice clothes much like Ponk.

Speaking of which, Ponk wore a black t-shirt with red and gray detailing, simple but effective. He along with most dancers wore sweatpants or joggers to practice, either that or shorts. His sweatpants were white with red stripes along the side and black ties. His shoes were black and red. Ponk typically wore a mask that covered his whole face except his eyes, but dancing often exerted lots of energy and left you worn out, he opted out of it for comfort and sensibility. Instead, he wore a yellow headband pulling back his black hair.

Dream took this in but had no use for the information. It was as normal and he had other things to do. Like getting into practice clothes himself. The DreamTeam had their lockers situated next to each other. As besties did. Or, at least, _real_ besties.

Dream was in front so he reached the lockers first, quickly entering the combination and opening it up. The combination was a simple four number code with numbers 0-9. That meant there were 10,000 possible combinations. Dream would have put his birthday, or his sister’s or mom’s, but Sapnap was known for getting into things that didn’t belong to him, but one of his friends. His mom’s birthday was his passcode on his phone when he met Sapnap, and as soon as he found out what his mother’s birthday was, he managed to get into his phone and fill his camera roll with pictures of his face. Real mature.

Not that Dream would blame him. They were eleven and a half, not exactly mature, and Dream probably would have done the same. Even now, he’d do that.

He put his schoolbag into the locker, making sure his phone was put in there too. Hip hop students were known for swiping other students' belongings. Most commonly, snacks, but phones, car keys, and cash were stolen sometimes as well. Dream’s class wasn’t even known for being Swiper from Dora but he never took any chances.

From his locker, he took out the short stack of clothes and held them as he snatched his dance shoes from the locker as well. After that, he began to get dressed.

He hung his jacket off the side of the locker door, sliding off his shoes and socks too. He didn’t like stepping on the locker room floor barefoot as they were often full of germs, diseases, just general grossness, but he also knew he wouldn’t be able to get his pants on and off with them on.

Quickly, he changed from his jeans to a pair of white joggers. These joggers were much simpler than the ones he wore to perform out on the streets. There were no belts, buckles, or straps. They were just a clean white slate of blankness. Immediately afterward he sat down at the bench behind him and pulled on a different pair of socks and his shoes. Now he wouldn’t have to touch the gross floor.

The socks were more padded than his regular socks. He would wear them all the time, but they were quite a bit more expensive and he didn’t want to wear them out while not dancing. Drista got them for him for Christmas.

Lastly, he pulled his shirt off and changed into a different one. He didn’t want to get one of his shirts he wore to school sweaty and gross. This shirt was a dark green, so you couldn’t see a lot of sweat on it. It made him feel better about sweating when it was already so gross. He also smeared some deodorant on. There could never be too much.

Dream was officially finished with changing, and it appeared that George and Sapnap were too. When he got the confirmation that they were done, they left the locker room to stretch in the hip-hop dance studio just down the hall.

From the windows on and alongside the door, Dream could see a few others already starting. As their teacher had yet to come, they were just fooling around with their own dances. He thought that a small group was doing Tik Toks in one corner of the room.

His smile grew warm and smug at the same time. This was _his_ place. This was _his_ thing. These were _his_ people. Dream threw the door open, knowing that he was going to rock everyone’s socks off.

No one looked in their direction when the door opened, but Dream knew, in time they would. When they saw how amazing he was and it was all going to be glorious. _They_ were going to be amazing.

It was never _Dream’s_ team. It was _the_ DreamTeam. It took all of them together to form it and become the dream. To live it, to become it. It was just as much Sapnap and Goerge’s team as it was his. Dream was determined not to just make him shine, or they shine, but Sapnap and Goerge individually.

The three took over a small area with no one in it yet and began stretching.

After that, George pulled out his phone and set a song on without telling Sapnap and Dream what it was. Nonetheless, Dream recognized it and began the dance.

The beginning of the song began with a freestyle section, which they started in. Each boy did something different, but somehow, it flowed together smoothly. To be a group you had to be able to fit together seamlessly.

Sadly—and they knew that it could happen, as it was close for class to start—their dancer instructor came into the studio and told them to get into form.

They complied, they knew better than to mess with him. Captain was pretty laid back, but he could get serious sometimes. The rest of the class did too, al, taking their specific places.

Captain stood at the front of the room, waiting for everyone to drop what they were doing and get into order. As soon as they were, he began.

“Alright, people! Today—or well, for a while, we’ll be working on the choreography for “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish,” Captain announced. Groans were heard throughout the class.

One particularly loud from a girl with brown hair, the hair seemed to have a slightly pink tint on it. Possibly from previous dyeing? Whatever it was, Dream knew the girl. It was Minx. He didn’t personally know her, but he knew of her and what she was like. A rather loud-mouthed girl.

Dream sighed, already knowing that this was only going to go one way.

“Ughh! Cap’n, I don’t understand why we have to do “Bad Guy.” Like, out of hall the songs you could’ve chosen, that was the one you chose!?” Minx exclaimed.

“Actually, Minx, I think you’ll enjoy this one. Seeing as you’re one of the ones on main.”

“Alright, alright. I know I’m pretty pog and all, so I suppose I’ll let this happen.” Conflict resolved within a minute, as usual.

“So we can begin?”

“I guess.”

Captain started shifting everyone around. This wasn’t a whole-class dance, so about half the class was told to step away. The class wasn’t large; there were just over fifteen people in the class.

A few of the people that were originally in the studio when Dream and his two friends came in weren’t in their class. There was another studio class next door and before the dance instructor had yet to unlock the door to it, so they were just hanging around in the other studio until the other instructor arrived.

In the end, less than half of the class was actually going to do Minx’s dance.

“There are going to be two other choreographers coming in this week for the rest of you. For now, I would like you to work on ILI,” Captain decided.

Those not in the Minx lineup gave signs of agreement and began making their way away from the others. Dream, George, and Sanap followed. It wasn’t that Captain was a bad instructor, he just knew that the class would be fine on their own. He doesn’t like teaching people who couldn’t think for themselves. Which was fair enough to him.

The middle of the room had one of those sliding wall things so that they could work on two separate things at once without disturbing the other. Minx and her group took the front one, while the others took the back one.

Right before Dream finished sliding the door to the other side with George, he swore he saw a flash of pink from the glass door on Minx’s side of the room. He didn’t question it. His mind was officially off a certain pink-haired person and set into dance mode.

As Sapnap leaned against his shoulder and Goerge stood nearby, he laughed. This was what he needed, this was what he deserved, this was his life. Maybe it was greedy, maybe he didn’t deserve it, but to him, if his life didn’t fulfill him, it wasn’t worth living it. Or at least, that was what he thought before he realized he did not have everything he wanted.

**Love is a lot like dancing—you just surrender to the music.** **  
****\- Pierce Brosnan**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to my rant about snow! It did snow (literally yesterday!) on New Year's Day. We also got an ice storm earlier that day, but I bet it'll melt pretty soon. :( Like, seriously 2020, could you not be decent enough to at least have some snow???
> 
> PS HAPPY NEW YEAR!
> 
> PSS Don't doubt it, 2021 will still suck.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HUH. A chapter in Technoblade's POV! WOW!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the support on Dancing Dreams!

Should Technoblade do more with his life? Probably, but Philza never said to; he just said to go to the library and drop off his books for him. He still wasn’t. He was still at the dance studio getting memorized by his keychain on his bag while Ranboo and Eret talked around him. They were going to accompany him to the library since they went the same way.

The ballroom at MCYT was in possibly the worst place ever, directly in the middle and there was no door nearby. Quite annoying when you don’t want to get caught after practice and have some younger kid try and talk to you. Techno speaks from experience.

He felt drop-dead tired as well, but he still had to stay awake long enough to go to the library and take out his contacts. They were a pain to sleep with in because of how much it hurt when he woke up. What a pain… and he’s ranting again from within his mind. Great.

To get out of MCYT, they went through the hip-hop section of the building. It was often loud on their side, and Techno didn’t particularly like going through there after a long day of school, dance, and some peculiar run-ins with Dream.

Ah yes, Dream and his strange actions he performed today. Typically, he’d see Dream in the hallway, nothing super interactive or something. But, today was different. Dream went to the library during lunch, where he hung out during lunch. He also worked with him during Creative Writing, but that was more normal than this behavior. He wasn’t exactly known for being the studious, reader-type. Not that he was dumb, he was truly quite smart and the two often competed with each other on grades and such. Today just  _ felt  _ different.

Why? Techno had no clue, and it seemed to make his ADHD act up. (His leg was trying to bounce while he walked, making him stumble a bit.)

He stopped fiddling with the keychain when he heard the deep bass of pounding rap and hip-hop music. Oh so different from the Peter Gundry music they had been playing during ballroom that night. Ah, waltzing was so fun… Techno was tempted to put his headphones on, even though on weekends he would often be subjected to this kind of earrape from Sleepy Bois Inc. practice and performances.

Typically, he and Wilbur would make the songs just so they would fit what they wanted. It took a lot of work and with the constant stream of homework and dance practice, it was often forgotten to be done, but in the end, it’d get done. Usually in the dead of night when the whole neighborhood was asleep and when Phil eventually found out how late they stayed up he’d sigh and shake his head at them.

A certain room they start approaching catches Techno’s eyes. It looked like the studio next to it, and the studio next to that one, it was just like all of the others. Except for the fact that it contained Dream.

Technoblade stopped. Eret and Ranboo stopped a few steps in front of him, turning to him in confusion.

“What is it?” Eret asked.

“Nothing, I just want to see what they’re doing,” Techno replied, stepping closer to the room’s door. He took up a spot next to the glass window and peered his head out so he could see in. Eret did the same above him, and Ranboo below him. Quite awkwardly seeing as they were all rather lanky young men. Somehow, Techno was shortest even though he was tall too.

Ranboo scooted Techno’s hair out from in front of his face, as it had fallen down on top of him when Techno took up his place. It blocked Ranboo’s view.

“So… why are we doing this?” Ranboo asked as he untangled Techno’s long hair from his own eyelashes.

“Ask Techno because I don’t have a clue.”

“We are watchin’.”

“Why?”

Techno shrugged, for a man with a reason for most things, he did not have a reason for why he was acting this way. Though he had a feeling it had something to do with the crush he had on Dream in freshman year.

As he watched, he found Dream. It was easy for Techno. His eyes automatically drew to him simply because he stood out with how much hubris he emitted. And the green. Kind of hard to miss a color so bright.

Dream seemed to be accepting directions from Captain, Dream’s dance instructor. He and his friends, George and Sapnap, walked over to the halfway point in the room along with just over half the class. Dream went to the right and Sapnap went to the left, each grabbing a side of a folded up door and sliding it across the opening. Soon, it shut, and Techno deemed it was time to leave.

He backed away from the window, tugging on Ranboo and Eret’s wrists, letting them know he was leaving. Close behind, they followed.

“What was that for?” Eret questioned for what seemed like the fifth time. Five is a bad number… No way near as good as four and three.

“I just needed to watch. I don’t know why, I just had the desire to, y’know?” Techno answered.

Eret and Ranboo nodded in faux understanding as they entered the outside and Techno wrapped his jacket tighter around him. It was cool, and he liked it. He took solace in the colder weather. He was a June-baby, but the summer was simply too warm for him. Spring was nice, but it was wet and rained too much. Fall and winter were pretty good though.

The three friends understood each other. What they liked and what they needed. A quiet walk was nothing strange to them, so this one was quite average for them.

Further down the sidewalk was a young lady, probably walking home from a walk with her dog as in one hand she held a leash attached to a dog, and she was heading in the direction of a few apartment buildings. Techno wanted to pet the dog. He wouldn’t though, he was too socially awkward for that. Instead, Eret asked.

“Excuse me, miss. Can we pet your dog?” Eret asked politely.

“Oh sure!” the lady answered, stopping a few feet from them. The three of them surged towards the dog, but the dog had no fear of three over six-foot boys coming at it. The dog simply jumped up onto the legs of Techno, who was in the middle of the group. “His name’s Romeo.”

“How sweet,” Ranboo said as he scratched Romeo’s rump. Techno was at the head of Romeo and had one hand pressed lightly down on his head in a back and forth motion. Eret was at Techno’s left side petting Romeo on his back.

“Have you read  _ Romeo and Juliet _ ?” Technoblade questioned quietly on impulse. He internally cringed at himself. Why did he speak? He hadn’t needed to say anything.

“Yeah, it was okay, but I named him Romeo because I liked the name. I liked reading  _ Hamlet  _ better.” Techno gave a small nod in response.

After a little, Ranboo stood, pulling Techno’s sleeve with him. That was signaling to Techno that it was time to go, and no, he could not steal the dog for himself. Eret and Techno followed his movement and thanked the lady before heading down the path again.

The library wasn’t too far from the studio, so they made it there soon after the dog encounter. Techno took the hardback book from his bag and dropped it in the slot at the front of the library. When they reached the gate of the library parking lot again, the three had to part ways. Eret would go to the right and then take another right, Ranboo would go left and take another left, and would head right a long way before turning left.

“Bye, guys. I’ll see you guys later,” Ranboo said with a sharp wave before turning away from Eret and Techno. The two then said their own goodbyes to his back before heading to the right.

They would walk together until Eret’s turn and then they’d all be alone. As they walked the short distance, Eret and Techno made small conversation, speaking of  _ The Dance of the Betrayed and Left  _ though they talked about it after the event that day.

“I still don’t know how no one noticed that Wilbur had taken out a bottle of eyedrops just seconds before he was seen crying. Like, the spotlight was literally on him,” Eret laughed. “How does he get away with these things?”

“Yeah, I have honestly no idea,” Techno responded before speaking again. “Apparently, according to Tommy—so who knows if it’s true—Dream was at the ballet and watched with Drista, Tubbo, and Tommy. I understood Drista being there—sorta—but Dream?” Techno needed to get this off his mind. He just didn’t know what to believe.

“Oh, I’m not sure why he would be there, but considering that his sister went, it probably had something to do with that. I did see them heading home afterwards though.”

“Oh, okay.”

By now, they had decided to stop at Eret’s street to finish the conversation, but since it was finished they could part ways.

“Well, Technoblade, I will see you tomorrow.”

“Same to you, my good sir.” Techno gave Eret a small bow.

Eret huffed out a small laugh and returned the bow. “Don’t forget to get some sleep.”

“Yes, I know.”

Eret threw up his hand and then turned away slowly heading in the opposite direction. Techno let out a little sigh and went his own way.

As Technoblade walked, he took in the area around him. It was what he had seen every day, but at night everything seemed mysterious and new. He listened for the sounds of the area and heard the faint rumble of the train a few blocks away. Their town wasn’t big but it also wasn’t small. A perfect balance.

The streetlights illuminated Techno’s path with a yellow glow. No one was on the road at the time. It was only 7:20 PM, but it was dark and growing colder. Perfect, just how Techno liked it.

As before, he fiddled with his keychain. The keychain was something Tommy got him for his 14th birthday. Tommy had been 11. It was a small crown with the words “Dancing King” engraved on it. It reminded Techno of “Dancing Queen” by ABBA. It also reminded him of his early days in dancing.

He had started when he was 7 and began with ballet. Ballroom dancing would come later when he was 12. He remembered the first dancing accident he ever had, it had been the second day of lessons.

Technoblade had run straight into one of the other dancers and they both fell down, which then created a problem because everyone was pretty close together so everyone fell. He had come out of it with a bloody nose and a scar down his neck. The girl he knocked down had tried to grab at him without thinking about it and scratched him with her nail, it tore through his skin and bled, leaving a scar. His parents had already not wanted him to take ballet, but this increased their dislike of him doing it. Luckily, he managed to convince them when he told them he would run away if they didn’t.

Thinking of his parents brought memories to him. He often didn’t think about them or tried not to. Not because they were dead, but because they were around so little he didn’t need to think about them. They were always on business trips, leaving Techno and his brothers alone. When they were younger and Phil couldn’t stay with them by themselves legally, they would go to their grandparents’ house. After a certain incident though, that stopped. Techno had never really liked his grandparents, so he was fine with it. Then again, his grandparents never really liked him and his siblings either.

Technoblade sighed, how did all of his thinking end with something unhappy? It was whatever, that was a past Technoblade, this was present, he had changed.

Techno spent the last few minutes of his walk not really thinking at all. Sometimes he’d space out just enough so that he could think about what he was doing without having to truly think about it, but also not think at all. When he came to the green house his family lived in, he brought his mind back from the depths.

The door opened before he could reach it, he was just reaching the steps to the porch. Phil was at the door.

“Hello, Techno! I expected you back earlier,” Phil greeted.

“Hullooo,” Techno replied, skipping up the stairs and walking into the house as Phil shut the door behind him. “Hadn’t meant to stay out so late. Eret, Ranboo, and I got to talkin', and we got distracted by a dog.”

“Fair enough.”

Technoblade pushed his light blue Converse off his feet with his toes as he saw Wilbur chase Tommy down the stairs, shouting profanities all the while.

“What were you doing in my room!” Wilbur exclaimed. “I was showering for twenty minutes!” Wilbur’s hair was dripping wet, leaving water drops on the floor.

“Come on, Wilbur. We can talk about this!” Tommy shouted, his voice growing higher and higher, and cracking.

Tommy ran at Techno and hid behind him while Technoblade grabbed him and dragged him in front of him once he dropped his bag. Phil took Tommy from Techno and dragged him to the couch. Wilbur and Techno followed close behind.

“Phil, tell Wilbur I didn’t do anything!” Tommy said indignantly, trying to get out of Phil’s grasp. He may have been taller than him, but Philza was a force to be reckoned with, and Tommy had like no muscle. “I was simply lookin’ for my record, which  _ he took  _ from  _ me _ !”

“I put it back in your room!” Wilbur answered.

“He did, I watched him,” Techno added.

“Alright, Tommy, I’ll let you go  _ if _ — _ if _ —you don't go back into his room, and mess with his stuff. Actually, if you go into any of our rooms without permission I will call Mom and Dad,” Phil decided. “And I know you went into my room on Sunday and took something. I just don’t know what yet.”

“I took nothing!”

“Then you are staying put.”

“Fine. I took one of your blankets because I got cold while watching TV, and Techno had put the couch blanket in the laundry after he spilled pizza sauce on it.”

“Oh, okay. Why didn’t you bring back the blanket?”

“I got drugs on it…”

“You got Coca-Cola on it!? Which blanket was it!”

“It was your black one,” Wilbur inputted from his place leaning on the back of the couch with Techno.

“Has it been washed yet?”

“It’s in the laundry still.”

“Alright, I expect to see it back in my room by Tuesday night. If that means you have to do the laundry yourself, then so be it.”

“Okay…”

The argument seemed over, so Techno started making his way to his room, picking up his bag by the door before heading down the hall. Just before he got to the door, there was a pull on his jacket sleeve. It was Tommy.

“Yeah?”

“I need some help with some Language Arts homework. Can you help?” Tommy asked.

“Sure, just let me get some PJs on and let me shower.”

Tommy nodded and ran up the hall to his room.

The hall was directly from the front door, and Tommy’s, Techno’s, and Phil’s bedrooms were in it. In that order. Techno’s happened to be a master bedroom because Phil didn’t have a use for all the extra space, Wilbur didn’t want it, and they wouldn’t allow Tommy to have it. The house had two masters, the other one was upstairs with Wilbur’s bedroom. It was the boys’ parents’ room. No one had been in there for quite some time.

As soon as he opened the door to his room (he kept it closed so it’d be less tempting for Tommy to go into it), he plopped his bag onto his desk and began making his way to the attached bathroom.

He turned on the lights in the room and went to the mirror, rubbing at his eyes. This reminded him of the impending doom he would face if he left his contacts in all night or showered with them on. Techno washed his hands then washed them again, but with no soap the second time, and dried them. With practiced precision, he did one swift swipe of his fingertip and the contact of his right eye was out. He set that one down in the solution before taking the other out and doing the same to it.

He strips and moves over to the cabinet, removing a fluffy white towel from it. Techno flips on the shower, waiting until it’s warm before getting into it and washing up.

Techno spends a while in the shower. He often spends longer in the shower after practice, sometimes he’ll even take a bath.

He still had to get out at some point though and help Tommy with his homework lest Tommy fail and pin it on Techno. Tommy would probably then end up calling Mom and Dad and things just would not go well for Techno. Not one bit. So, Techno got out.

Wrapping the towel around his waist, Techno left his bathroom and entered his bedroom. Going over to his wardrobe, Techno pulled out some pajamas.

The pajamas were basically what he wore every night—he was too lazy to get anything too different. His bottoms were red with crowns outlined in black covering them. The shirt he chose was a simple light gray long-sleeve. He also put on some socks, and then he was done. Except for his glasses, he had yet to put those on. As soon as he finished dressing, he put them on. Adjusting the piece of tape keeping the two sides together first before sliding them on.

He blinked rapidly before his eyes adjusted to the ability to see. Once he could walk forward without tripping over something he couldn’t see, he went back into the bathroom to fix his hair.

Techno squeezed the excess water out and brushed through it, and then left it down to dry. It had already started the drying process and had begun to curl up. His hair wasn’t naturally straight, it was a hassle to deal with as well, and going out with his hair being oh so naturally wavy and messy didn’t exactly sound pleasing to Techno. He had a feeling that he would get a few more looks than he normally would. And that’s saying something, he already had long, pink hair. He might get fewer looks if he also wasn’t a ballet dancer. Now all this would be fine if he was a girl, but you know, gender standards (are dumb).

Once that was finished he headed out of his room and shut the door behind him. He paused in the hallway, listening to where Tommy might be. You could almost always hear him from wherever he was in the house.

Quite annoying most of the time, but it was easy to keep track of him. The only quiet time was when Tommy was out of the house, or asleep. But even then, sounds always filled the house. From talking, to arguing and fighting, to the TV playing, the house was more often than not, filled with noise.

As Techno listened, he heard the faint sound of Wilbur doing the dishes and talking. It sounded like all of his brothers, so Tommy and Phil probably sat at the counter or dining room table. Techno headed that way and found exactly what he was looking for. Tommy.

He looked up as Techno rounded the corner. “Finally, you’re finished. You took forever,” Tommy groaned, splayed out across the table.

“I don’t see you going to dance practice,” Technoblade countered.

“You still took a very long time, Technoblade.”

“Perhaps.”

Tommy groaned once again as Techno walked over to the table and sat next to his younger brother. Phil was sitting on a stool at the counter, and as Techno thought, Wilbur was at the sink washing dishes. They had had chili for supper and Techno had spilled some on his blanket he had wrapped around him then. Quite sad, really.

“Do you have your homework with you?” Techno asked. He actually needed to see the work to know what Tommy was doing.

“Right… About that…”

“You don’t have it, do you?”

“I left it at school…”

“Bruhhhhh…”

“Ah! I can ask Tubbo for a picture of his, so then we have the work and can do it!” Tommy took his phone from where it sat beside him and began typing away at it.

“Pogchamp!” Philza called from his spot. Tommy grinned.

“And, Tommy, when is this due and when did you get it assigned?” Techno asked.

“Uh… tomorrow,” he answered. Techno waved his hand in front of him, signaling for Tommy to continue. “Last week…”

“How’re you supposed to get it done! You’ll do it, but won’t be able to get it down onto paper.”

“Speed through it during first period. I have Literature second period, not first, so I have plenty of time.” Tommy gets up and heads to his room. Coming back with a piece of lined paper. “Alright! I’ve got a picture of the paper. Here ya go.” He slid his phone across the table.

“What do you need help with?”

“All of it!”

“How do you need help with all of it?”

Tommy shoved his middle finger into Techno’s face. “You don’t know me!”

“I’m literally your brother. Not to mention I've known you since you were born.”

“You’re a stalker and a simp!”

“That doesn’t even make sense!” Wilbur called from the kitchen.

“Shut up, Wilbur! You weren’t in this conversation!”

Techno could feel Phil’s sigh from across the room. He smiled, he loved his family. It was chaotic and perfect, and just the way he liked it.

“Well, whatever Techno is, you still need to get your work done,” Phil said, calming everybody back down.

“We’ll play some video games after we finish if you get your work done,” Techno promised.

“Fine…”

“Alright.” Techno looked down at the phone he held and took a look at the work. It was a literary analysis essay on  _ Lord of the Flies _ . Techno remembered doing this. “This is an essay on  _ Lord of the Flies _ . What do you need help on, and did you actually read it?”

“Yes, I read it! Why would you ever think I didn’t!?” Tommy sighed. “I’ve got an idea for it, but I need you to check over it because Ranboo said my spelling was atrocious.  _ I  _ don’t believe him, but this assignment is worth a lot of points, and I’m kinda almost failin’ so I need to get this right.”

Techno nodded. “Okay, get started on it.” He stared at Tommy as he went back to his room, taking his laptop from it and sitting down on the couch. Phil did the same as Techno once he saw the game Techno was playing with Tommy. They shot smirks at each other.

After a few minutes, Tommy finally noticed. “Why do two keep on staring at me!? You too, Wilbur!?” Tommy hissed frustratedly.

Techno didn’t even know Wilbur had joined them, but he did know that he could barely contain his laughter. He could also tell Wilbur and Phil were close to doing the same.

“What do you mean, Tommy? We’re not doin’ anything,” Techno asserted. Phil burst out with giggles at that comment. Wilbur kept it in, but his cat-like smile grew wider until his teeth showed.

“You guys are so mean! I’m leaving!” Tommy stormed off to his room, slamming the door behind him.

“Wait, no,” Wilbur laughed. “Tommy, come back!”

“NO!” Was heard from the other side of the door.

“He’s so not going to get his homework done if he’s in his room. He’s going to get so distracted,” Techno commented after there was a silence.

“Let’s give him a bit,” Phil decided. The two younger nodded and continued on with their own things. Techno moved to the couch after some time, deciding it would be more comfortable for scrolling through Twitter.

After a bit, Wilbur was finished with the dishes, and loudly said, “Hey, Techno! Would you like to play some Smash with me?” They all knew Tommy heard them speaking, the walls in their house weren’t thick enough to cover the loud-speaking of Wilbur.

“Yes, Wilbur. I would love to play some Smash with you,” Techno played along. “Phil, would you like to join us?”

“Most definitely!”

Tommy flew out of his room, anger clear on his face. “You guys aren't fair!”

“Fine, Tommy, we’ll wait for you. Bring out your work and start on it.”

Tommy nodded and ran back out of his room with his laptop. Taking a seat next to Techno on the couch.

For the next hour, they did their own things. At one point, Wilbur went to his room, and Phil moved over to a chair in the living room. Yet, Tommy stayed occupied with his work, not once complaining aloud, though there was some grumbling still. His fingers stayed moving across his keyboard at all times except when he needed to break for some thinking. The end of the hour was marked by Tommy getting up and going to the bathroom. When he came back, he continued writing.

Another hour passed, and Tommy declared himself done. Techno read through it and checked over everything, fixing every mistake he saw before passing it over to Wilbur for a final check through. He would’ve given it off to Phil, who was actually downstairs, but he fell asleep and Techno hadn’t wanted to disturb him. Being a college student was hard, Phil deserved the sleep. So instead, Techno texted Wilbur to come downstairs. Which he did, then checked over Tommy’s paper.

They gave Tommy the okay to be finished, and he put his laptop back on his desk in his room.

When he was done with that, he took up his spot on the couch again, and began to speak—quietly that is because Phil was still asleep.

“Do you guys still want to play Smash?” he asked,

“Yeah, but we shouldn’t now, not while Phil is asleep,” Wilbur replied. Even though Phil was a very heavy sleeper, they all knew how loud games could get. Especially when they were competing against each other.

“Alright, that’s fine with me. Does anybody want some tea?” Techno proposed. Wilbur said yes, and Tommy asked for some Coke.

Alone, Techno went to the kitchen. Prepared to make some of the best tea anyone had ever dang saw. Dangit. As the water boiled, Techno opened up his phone to see a message from a number almost at the very bottom of his contacts list. Dream.

The message was simple. Just two sentences and twenty-one words, but it literally made Techno fall off where he was sitting on the counter.

**Dream**

**don’t think we’ll finish the project next class** **  
** **do you wanna work on it at 1 of our houses tomorrow after school?**

**Perhaps.**

**???**

**Can we do it at ur house?** **  
** **My siblings will bother us immensely**

**I have a sibling too........** **  
** **yknow what** **  
** **sure** **  
** **I’ll kick drista out of the house**

**K**

Luckily, Techno managed to respond without having a heart attack like one of the other guys he knew—really interesting guy, Schlatt, real interesting. He still fell off the counter though, eliciting the attention of Tommy and Wilbur in the living room.

They rushed into the kitchen to find Techno lying on the ground, spread out with his iPhone 6 lying screen first on his chest, still on.

“Are you okay, Techno?” Wilbur questioned carefully.

“Well, Wilbur, Techno is evidently not okay. Judging by the fact he’s literally lying on the ground like a turtle that got kicked over,” Tommy observed.

“Yeah… I’m fine,” Technoblade mused, continuing to lie on the ground.

“What happened?”

“Y’know, the usual. Gettin’ a text from someone who you barely speak to, and you gave your number to, texted once and never again. Yeah, the usual.”

“So it was Dream.” Why did Tommy have to be correct?

“I didn’t say that.”

“You just don’t want to admit I’m right.” Techno could hear the tea kettle screeching.

_ It sounded like Dream… STOP. _

Wilbur turned it off and came back to standing over Techno’s limp body.

“We should probably get him up,” he said.

“Nah.”

Wilbur pulled Techno up without Tommy. Seeing as he seemed to have to stand up, Techno did and took it as an opportunity to get his tea.

The other two stayed put as he waltzed on over to the cabinet containing tea. He pulled out two tea bags for chamomile. One for him, and one for Wilbur. Along the way back to where the tea kettle sat, he went into another cabinet and took out his sleeping medication.

Above the tea kettle was a cabinet full of mugs. Techno pulled out two and poured hot water into each before sticking the tea bags into each.

Tommy and Wilbur had finally decided to move. Wilbur moved to the other side of the counter to sit on a stool, while Tommy took a Coke from the fridge and went to his room.

After having the tea steep, Technoblade took the bag from each mug and threw them away. Then going into another cabinet and fishing out a bottle of honey and cinnamon. From the fridge, he took the milk out.

Wilbur had already taken his tea from the spot the mugs were in. Not needing any extra flavoring because he had no sense of taste, Techno on the other hand did need some more flavor. So, he squeezed a bit of honey into his tea and then sprinkled some cinnamon in. Before mixing it all together with a spoon, lastly, he poured a bit of milk in—not too much, but enough—and stirred that together.

Techno slid the mug to the other side of the counter—where he would sit down—and walked to Wilbur’s side and sat down next to him.

Plopping his arms onto the counter, and then his head onto that, Technoblade groaned grumpily. He didn’t understand why he was grumpy. He had no reason to be, but he still was.

Lifting his head up, he took a sip of his tea after sticking his meds on his tongue. The two sat in silence for a bit, and by the time either one spoke, Techno had finished half his tea. Wilbur was the one who began the conversation. Techno remembered very few times where he had actually started a conversation first or texted first for that matter.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

“Sure…” Techno decided, not putting too much thought into his answer because if he did, he would back out of it. “So, we were working on a Creative Writing project together—as normal—but we didn’t finish, and we have to present in the next few class periods.” Wilbur nodded. “And he texts me asking if we wanted to get together to work on the project more, so I said yes.

“I guess it just surprised me that he texted me. Seeing as we texted like once, as I said. I still don't know. And with his supposed appearance at DBL, and then lunch today… It’s just confusing me.”

“I get it, and yes, Dream was totally at DBL,” Wilbur confirmed. “I saw him myself.”

“Really?” Technoblade groaned. Wilbur nodded, he appeared to be very pleased with himself.

“I don’t see why you seem to be so nervous. Dream seems to want to be friends with. Isn’t that what you wanted when Dream and you were constantly duking it out in competition?”

“I suppose, but back then it was simply hubris fueling us. Has he changed?”

“For sure.” Wilbur said, before then mumbling: “Even though he still rejected my offer of pizza, and left my son at the altar…”

Techno drank some of his tea, taking in its warmth, scent, and flavor. He also yawned. The meds and the tea seemed to be taking effect. He was beginning to feel quite drowsy, and it was only a little past 10:00 PM. Very early based on his past.

“Well, Wilbur, I think I’m gonna head to my room now. Possibly do some work on _ the thing _ , then go to bed,” Techno said, standing up with his mug in hand.

“Alright, Technoblade. Don’t stay up too late, and I might also do some work on _ the thing _ .”

“Right, see you in the mornin’, Wil.” Techno began ambling over to his room, but not before taking a blanket from Phil’s room and draping it over his sleeping brother’s form. He also shut off the light in the living room after seeing Wilbur turn off the one in the kitchen and go upstairs.

“Goodnight, Philza Minecraft,” Technoblade whispered into the darkness of the area, before formally going into his room and shutting the door behind himself.

Flipping on the light, Technoblade made his way to his desk where his bag sat. He shoved it aside and placed his mug in its place. He then walked over to the wall he shared with Tommy’s room and knocked on it three times, a signal that Tommy should go to bed soon. He got a knock in return, a signal of acknowledgment, whether the suggestion is followed or not.

He took a small remote from his desk and clicked a button on it. The fairy lights strung up around his room flickered on, and Techno flipped the main light off. He much preferred the light the small light bulbs radiated than that of the main light. The bulbs’ light was much more comforting and soothing.

Back to his desk, he went, and finally sat down, turning on his computer and monitor. While he waited for that to load he drank some more tea. Maybe he wouldn’t last awake as long as he thought. A distant thought told him to set a timer to tell him to go to bed. He listened and set an alarm for 11:00 PM. Alarms and timers always helped Technoblade remember things that with his ADHD and other problems, he often forgot.

When the monitor screen had finally lit up with his stuff, he opened up Spotify. All the while, plugging an AUX cord into his computer that was connected to some speakers on his desk. Finding a playlist, he clicked the play button. It was his normal playlist, filled with lite rock and chill music. Through the speaker it came out loud, scaring Techno and making him immediately turn the sound down on his speakers. He had honestly forgotten why he had up the sound so loud. It was probably something to do with getting Tommy out of his room. (Spoiler alert: it was.)

When he was all set up, he began his work on the thing.

He found idea after idea and wrote them down onto his notepad beside him. Adding some of them to the thing while some were discarded from a previous session of searching for the perfect sound, the perfect beat. If he truly couldn’t find what he was looking for, Wilbur would take out his guitar or something, and make it for him.

Technoblade found what was good, added ideas and Wilbur edited it all together and added to it with his own sounds. They’d then have it looked over by Tommy and Phil before sending it off to their parents, who would write up choreography for it before sending it back. It was a process, but a good one. The choreography always turned out good, seeing as their parents were pretty big in the choreographer industry. It was a family effort that they all took part in.

One of their favorite collaborations was one that Tommy had helped with. Most of the time, these went quite poorly and were never actually used, but this time, it was fabulous. Techno and Wilbur and set down the beat, but according to Phil and Tommy, it wasn’t right yet. At one point, Techno started beat-boxing with the bass, and Tommy ended rapping along. It was quite poor, but that’s what made it special. Everyone decided that was how they wanted the finished to sound like—a conglomerate of sounds mixed together to make something special and unique—so they cleaned it up (just a tiny bit), and sent it to their parents.

When they performed it, they got a massive amount of good feedback. It was great that people loved something that they felt so passionately about.

Funnily enough, Tubbo had given Tommy a version of “Pig Step” (what they named the dance and music) that was on a record. He now forever had that record hanging up on his wall in the middle of all the other records he had. They all hung above his record player.

Technoblade worked on the thing until his alarm went off. When it did ring out, he stretched and finished off the rest of his tea since there had been only a sip left in the mug. He stood up after shutting down his computer and speaker and picked up his phone. He also pressed the button on the remote that turned the fairy lights off. He would simply use the light from his phone to guide him.

First, he brought himself to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Once that was finished, he made his way to his bed and lifted the covers up from their previous all-over-the-place form, and sat down on the edge of his bed. Techno slid his glasses off his face and set them on his bedside table. Lastly, he laid down and covered himself with his blankets, shutting his phone off and plugging it in.

Into the darkness, he whispered one simple word. A word he said to everything in the world.

“Goodnight.”

As usual, there was no reply, but if there was one Techno thinks he’d be scared. Soon, Techno fell asleep into a land of endless dreams that never reached Techno’s head. The only thing that stayed in his head was an endless image his mind had decided to screen-shot—it was the texts between him and Dream.

**Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere.** **  
** **\- Margaret Wise Brown, Goodnight Moon**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I officially have a Twitter account for this account (just @Fakethekay) so if you wanna hang out, go follow me or whatever. I will probably post an explanation of The Dance the Betrayed and Left. So look forward to that!
> 
> Also thank you to those who helped me out with writing dance scenes! It really helped in later chapters. You know who you are!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Technoblade's experiences with dealing with his brothers and his ever-growing problems. There are many of these, but he's determined to defeat them all. One way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the support and love on this. It's really appreciated!

School was abnormally normal the next day. Seeing as the previous day had been so strange for Techno. The ever-present realization that Dream would be coming over to his house still stayed in his head—right at the front, where it was most annoying and unwelcomed.

In the morning, before school started that day, Techno had made sure that he told his brothers that Dream was coming over (they had decided to change it to his house later). He got some looks from Wilbur, and a few sly glances from Tommy, but Technoblade pretended not to notice them. Phil might’ve also given some smirks, but Techno explicitly denied this. He would not let his—by far the nicest—brother do that to him. No way.

But, by now, it was the end of the school day—or well, almost. Techno was in advisory at the moment.

To be honest, he didn’t know if he wanted the school day to be over so he could be done with school and hangout with Dream, or the opposite, he was, admittedly, unsure of whether he truly wanted to spend this time with Dream. Not that he didn’t want to spend time with him! Techno just wasn’t sure what his half-asleep brain was thinking when he answered Dream the previous night.

He realized that he liked Dream, but Techno also knew this was only based on what Dream looked like, not his personality. He truly hadn’t spent enough time with the man to establish if his personality was gross or not. What he had seen of Dream was simply competition, cockiness, stupidity, and cleverness. Techno couldn’t handle stupid people. He made this known by how frequently he told Quackity he’d put a pencil through his teeth. Quackity was an absolute idiot. Technoblade did have fun with him sometimes though, but oftentimes, Quackity would become too much for him.

Back to Dream.

Techno knew Dream wasn’t stupid, per se. He himself has acted particularly dumb when with friends. He also knew that everyone had their especially dumb moments, so the fact that he had seen Dream be pretty darn dumb with his friends didn’t really deter him.

Maybe- maybe he just… overthinking this.

… 

No, who was he kidding? This is very important to think about. What if Dream was a serial killer? Or a compulsive liar? Or he could be a kleptomaniac.

His thoughts were stirred by not the bell, but a very loud crash right in front of him. Why did he have to be in the worst advisory ever?

Techno peered over the edge of his desk to see what had happened. What appeared to be there was something rather strange.

Skeppy was lying on the ground with an angry-looking Spifey standing over him.

Technoblade sighed. Why was he friends with Skeppy? “What’d you do this time?” he asked.

“Ah, Technoblade! Care to help me up?” Skeppy acknowledged.

“No, Techno, don’t help him up. He deserves this,” Spifey countered.

“It appears that we are at a stand-still.”

“Come on! Techno please help me! I gotta talk to you, dude.”

“Fine…” Techno stood and walked around to the front of his desk. Spifey backed up as he held a hand out to Skeppy. He took the hand and Technoblade pulled him up, walking back to his seat once Skeppy was stable on his feet.

Spifey left, and Skeppy took a chair from an empty desk nearby, pulling it over to Techno. He sat down backward on the chair and leaned onto his desk. Techno pulled his undone homework away from him.

Why couldn’t they have a responsible teacher who didn’t walk out of the room to go gossip in the teacher’s lounge for advisory? Maybe then he could legitimately get some work done during the time the school supposedly specifically gave them to work on the stuff. Of course not. Why would anybody ever ask or give Techno what he wanted? That would be horrible, completely pointless.

“You said you needed something?” Techno said.

“Ah, yes! Techno, I have recently concluded that I’m in love with Bad,” Skeppy responded quietly.

“Only now you realize this?”

“What do you mean ‘only now’!?”

“Nothing… and why did you need to tell me this?”

“...How do I tell him..?”

“You’re asking the guy who has never had a boyfriend or girlfriend. Is that really such a good idea?”

“Uh…”

“Here, I’ll answer for you. No.” Techno was ready to get back to his work, but Skeppy was his friend. Maintaining a relationship with him would be nice. “But, seriously Skeppy, I think if you straight out told him it’d be fine. I’m pretty sure he likes you too. Just be yourself. He hasn’t left or stopped being friends with you yet, so that’s gotta mean somethin’.”

“Aw… Techno, thank you…” Skeppy seemed to blank out with a second. “Wait. Are you insulting me!?”

Technoblade laughed, shooing Skeppy away and pushing at the chair’s legs so that Skeppy himself would be pushed away from him.

“Technooooo! I’ll get you back!” Skeppy shook his fist at him as he stood and stomped away. What a pouty and whiny boy. How was he so popular?

This interruption broke Techno from his overthinking. In fact, he forgot completely. Not a thought about Dream or his coming over after school that day was left in his mind. So, when it was the end of the day he forgot that he was supposed to wait for Dream.

When he met up with his brothers, as typical, after school they gave him strange looks.

“Big T, aren’t you supposed to be with Dream, right now?” Tommy asked. Sending a very confused look to his older brother.

Techno’s eyes widened. “Crap. Tommy, I’m only going to say this once, but you are so right,” Techno replied, now turning around. “Now I gotta go! Bye! See ya later.”

As Techno ran back into the school to the anatomy room, Tommy told Wilbur, “I’ll be out of the house today. Wanna join?”

“Nah, I wanna see how this plays out,” Wilbur said while looking up to the sky with his head leaning back against his arms. His smirk grew.

Yeah, Technoblade should have remembered, but luckily, he had been made known of his forgetting before too late. Dream was still just outside the anatomy classroom as he’d promised he’d be.

As soon as Dream came into view, Techno slowed his pace. He had run until that point, but Techno didn’t want it to actually look like he had forgotten about Dream. 

Techno stopped when he was within four feet of Dream. Silence filled the gap between them.

“Well… you can follow me to my house, I guess…” Techno said awkwardly. He couldn’t start conversations very well, maintaining them was a hassle, and especially when you barely knew someone you were supposed to talk to.

Dream gave a small nod, moving his hands from where they were clasped behind his back to into his jacket pockets, and began to follow after Techno. The two walked at a steady pace. Dream stayed mostly behind Techno until one point he moved to walk beside him. Somehow, this made Techno even more nervous. He fiddled with the strap of his backpack. His keychain was on his dance bag, not this one.

But, thankfully, they arrived at Techno’s family’s large green house sooner rather than later. Making Techno’s nervousness slide off his shoulders a bit. From what he knew, and based on what Tommy had messaged him on the walk home, Wilbur would be the only one at home while Dream was there. Phil usually got home later from having to ride the bus from university and walk the rest of the way. He also finished later than his younger brothers. Tommy was going to be out with Ranboo, apparently, they were going to some llama petting zoo. Techno was originally going to go, but because of Dream, he wasn’t able to.

“Well, uh… we’re here. Come on in,” Technoblade awkwardly explained as he stepped up onto the porch and pulled the door open. He held it for Dream as the unnecessary words hung open in the air.

Techno desperately hoped that their usual casual banter would soon make an appearance. Otherwise, he thought he’d die on the spot.

Dream stepped through and Techno followed. Dream was already taking off his shoes when Techno had shut the door behind him and began toeing off his own. Man, he was good. Whoever did wear shoes while at a house was weird. It was also severely frowned upon in his family because none of his brothers wanted to clean up dirt and mud. Fair enough, neither did he.

As Techno walked down the hallway to his room, Dream followed. At the speed of light, Technoblade thought about the current state it was in. A few dirty articles of clothing laid on the floor, a large poster of an anime was on his wall, and a manga was sitting on his desk next to several empty mugs. Quite a few of those were in his room.

Yeah, Dream was  _ not  _ going into his room. (There was also that large dent on the wall from slamming Phil into it while fooling around. And that stain on his carpet that had been yet to be taken out.)

“You can wait in the living room while I get materials from my room. If you have stuff with you, you can get that set up too,” Technoblade said, stopping in the middle of the hallway. He could sense the nod Dream gave without turning around. Wait- he didn’t even turn around to look at Dream while speaking, and that wasn’t super polite. Ughhhhh…

Nonetheless, he felt a shift in the air next to him, Dream had gone into the living room. He also heard the very distinct creak in that one floorboard behind him that he had made sure to step over when coming down the hall.

Crisis averted. Technoblade could now go into his room and make a mess of his own things without having someone judge him for it.

He reached his room and opened the closed door. Techno trusted none of his family to not go into it when he wasn’t around. That was also what Phil and Wilbur did. Tommy didn’t, but he cared less. He was also usually the one trespassing anyway. He had less to worry about.

Once in his room, Techno dropped his school bag to the ground and sank with it to dig through it. He took a few things out. Pens, pencils… etc. Then, off his desk, he unplugged his laptop and dumped his things he’d taken from his bag on top of it. He had other things to do after all.

Techno changed into a pair of white joggers and a sleek black turtleneck (also sleeveless), which he tucked into his bottoms. Stylish as always, even at home. (Literally, even if there was no company, this is how he’d dress.) Also a jacket. Today, he went into his stock of jackets of all shapes and sizes and pulled out one. It was actually a sweatshirt, not a jacket. Why was this in with his jackets then? The sweatshirt was a shade of light blue, and Techno thought that it was actually Tommy’s, but he wasn’t here so it didn't matter. It fit him.

Once he deemed himself ready, he walked out of his room holding all of the stuff he’d decided to bring along and went out into the living room. Dream was sitting on the couch with his laptop on his lap. (Where else would it go?) He wasn’t doing any work, but he seemed to be just looking around. Fair enough, if Techno was in a house he’d never been to, he’d probably be doing the same, but being one of the ones who lived in the house made it a little weird.

“I’m back,” Techno announced as he came into the living room. He set his stuff down on the coffee table. “Do you want somethin’ to eat or drink? We’ve got practically everything.”

“Um, sure. I’ll just have some water, and some chips.”

“‘Kay.” He headed into the kitchen and grabbed two glasses, filling them both with water. Then he looked into the pantry for chips. There were so many types.

“Uh… Dream, what type of chips do ya want?”

“What do you have?”

“Potato chips, barbecue, sour cream and onion, baked, nacho cheese Doritos, veggie chips, Sun Chips… Uh, I think that’s all.”

“Why do you have so many!? Also, I’ll take sour cream and onion.”

“Eh, who knows. The veggie chips are for my dad when he’s around. Wilbur is the only one who’ll eat them otherwise, and even he doesn’t like them very much. Phil really likes baked potato chips, and Tommy will basically eat any chips except veggie,” Techno explained as he took the bag of sour cream and onion potato chips from the pantry along with some caramel corn. Sour cream and onion were nasty, but whatever, Techno wasn’t the one eating them. Caramel corn on the other hand… Ten out of ten.

“Oh…”

Techno began putting the bags away and carried the two water bottles in one hand and Dream’s bowl of chips in the other. He’d come back for his popcorn.

“Here ya go.”

He went back for his popcorn before finally coming back and sitting a foot away from Dream on the couch. He felt the spring of the cushion against him. Oh, this was the one that Tommy had messed up. Good thing Dream hadn’t sat on it. It was rather uncomfortable.

Dream looked over to Techno and showed him his screen. It was open to the document they were writing on. “Alright, so we’ve gotten quite a bit done so far, but we still have to finish it, that includes figuring out what the heck Augustus is going to do about Albertine passing out while they’re getting chased by the Space Police,” Dream started.

“Right… My question is how the heck did we come up with this idea. It is by far the strangest and most chaotic thing ever,” Technoblade diverged.

“Good question, we will figure that when we actually finish. So... let’s get started.”

Techno nodded and took his laptop off the coffee table. Opening it, he was greeted with his writing already open. Yes, he had opened it that morning so he wouldn’t get embarrassed with going through the long process of getting it loaded.

He began writing and stopped fifteen minutes later when he was called by Dream.

“Alright, Techno, I say we speedrun this and write up an ending. Then we can go back and fix everything up,” Dream suggested.

“Sure.”

And that’s what they did, for the next half hour. They spent their time on the ending. Then they brought it all together and filled in the gaps for the hour after that.

There was only one hiccup. This:

From upstairs a blaring string of curses was heard. And Techno forgot about Wilbur being home.

“Excuse me for a second,” he told Dream, standing and making his way upstairs.

Once he was there, he went to Wilbur’s room and opened the door. Wilbur was laying on his face on the floor.

“Wilbur, we can hear you downstairs. And didn’t I tell you to be quiet while Dream was here?”

“Wait, you can hear me?” Wilbur questioned, eyes wide and a smirk growing ever more apparent on his face.

“No duh! Why else would I come all the way upstairs and tell you to be quiet if we couldn’t hear you.”

“I suppose… Fine. I’ll be quiet.”

“Good, now I’m going back.” What Techno didn’t know was that Wilbur had his fingers crossed behind his back. That dang sand-eater. What Techno didn’t know that he was going to screech as soon as Techno made it downstairs.

Techno shut Wilbur’s bedroom door behind him as he left, walking back downstairs. Dream looked back at him as he made his way down. As soon as he reached the bottom of the steps, there was the screech.

“YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO… SUCK IT GREEN BOYYY!!!!”

Dream stared even harder at Techno, who looked just as shocked as him. Before rage quickly consumed him.

“Wilbur! Do you want to become an orphan!?” he called up the stairs.

“Y’know Technoblade, those are your parents too,” Wilbur said. He was now standing at the top of the steps.

Technoblade paused for a moment. “Wilbur, you want to know what I do to orphans?” He ignored the previous statement.

Wilbur let out a loud groan and sigh. “Techno, I already know. ‘You’re the second worst thing to happen to those orphans.’ You tell me this so often.”

“Yeah, so back into your little hidey-hole in your closet and leave.” Wilbur’s closet had been turned into his recording studio/office since he didn’t need the closet space for anything else.

“Fine….”

Tecno listened as Wilbur walked away from the steps slowly, and finally, he shut the door behind him as he went into his room.

“Finally… he’s gone.”

“Was he… talking about me?” Dream questioned.

“I’d assume.”

“Why is Wilbur like that?”

“At this point, we all just ignore him.” 

Dream nodded. “Makes sense.”

That was the situation. Darn you, Wilbur Soot! But now, that was in the past, and now, they were finished with the writing. So now, technically, Dream could leave.

Techno didn’t think he wanted him to leave though. He’d had a really good time with him while he’d been there. Maybe he could just stay a bit longer. Luckily, it was now official that Dream would stick around for at least another few minutes because Tommy just came barging into the house yelling.

“Everyone thinks I have poo on my shirt!” Tommy yelled, having just barged into the house and slammed the door shut.

Both Techno and Dream whipped around to face him. There was a patch of brown just under the collar of his shirt. It totally was poop.

“Yeah, they were probably right,” Dream agreed.

Wilbur came downstairs, having heard the yelling. “I heard we were yelling about defecating,” he said. “May I join?”

“Wilbur, everyone thinks I have poop on my shirt.”

Wilbur started laughing. “You totally do!”

“I do not! It’s the chocolate I was eating earlier.”

“I have doubts about this,” Techno commented.

“Oh... I outta…” Tommy muttered, “Y’know what? I’m leaving!” And that’s exactly what he did (thank goodness). He left and went a few feet and slammed his bedroom door behind him.

“Finally, he’s gone,” Dream groaned.

“HEY! I heard that!”

“Tommy, I think that was the point,” Wilbur called. No response. “Right, anyway, Techno. We’ve got stuff to do in a bit, remember? Do you, I don’t know… want to kick Dream out of the house?”

“Perhaps.” Techno turned to Dream. “Leave.”

“Uh- okay..?” Dream began getting his stuff together, and just as he had his stuff all picked up, Phil entered the house.

“Can we burn something?” he said, just entering and taking off his shoes. “Cuz I feel the desire to. Techno, you up for it?”

“Um… Phil?”

“Yeah, Wil?”

“Dream’s still here.”

Philza looked up, and just as Wilbur said, there was Dream, blinking at Phil.

“I feel like I should be going…”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best…” Techno agreed.

“Big D is leaving?!” Tommy shouted, coming out of his room. What was he doing? Hanging out just behind his door? “I still haven’t gotten to ask ‘im my question!”

“Alright, Tommy… Ask me your question,” Dream sighed as he pulled his shoes on.

“What’s the worst word you know?”

Dream laughed and began answering, but he was cut off by Techno. “Cacti. Anyway, Dream, I really think you should be going. Bye now.” He pushed Dream out the door.

“Uh- Hey! I wasn’t finished!” He pushed against Techno.

“Bye now!”

“I wasn’t finished talkin’ to Big D, Techno!”

“BYE NOW!” Techno had officially gotten Dream outside and was now forcing the front door closed. Once it finally shut when Dream gave up and began walking away, he slid down against it, sighing.

The two oldest burst out laughing, laughing at the misery of Technoblade. Laughing at everything that could possibly happen to Techno that he hated but they still laughed at it because it caused him misery. Eventually, Tommy was just awkwardly trying to butt in, but it was automatically covered up by the other two’s laughter.

“GUYS!” Tommy screamed over the other two.

The laughter faded out slowly. Like, three minutes slowly. Once it finally did, though, Tommy began speaking.

“Why are we laughing?” he questioned, confused.

This time, Techno, Wilbur, and Phil began laughing. 

“What an idiot!” Techno exclaimed, coughing from laughing too hard. “Man, I need some water.” He left and got some water while the other three still by the front door stayed put.

“I still don’t understand.”

“Don’t worry about it, Tommy. Just go back into your room,” Phil said.

“Okay…”

Next, Wilbur and Phil left the scene to go into the living room. Tommy didn’t need to know about the conversation they’d have with the younger middle brother. After all, he’d probably end up screaming about it at school. He would then get murdered, which they didn’t want to have to deal with or explain to their parents as to why there was a carcass in Tommy’s room and where the youngest brother went.

Technoblade came into the living room carrying his glass of water. He’d already put away Dream and his dishes from earlier, so the living room was mostly clean, except for a few papers scattered around, and his stuff that he’d yet to put in his room. As soon as he saw Wilbur and Phil seemingly waiting for him, he sighed and groaned. Techno wasn’t sure if he was ready for this conversation. It would most likely go south very quickly and get extremely loud and screamy. Luckily, there was no Tommy around to enhance this by tenfold.

Techno takes one final sip of his water before setting it down on the coffee table. He had to prepare himself for this talk. Mainly mentally, but also physically because this could end in a multitude of ways. On one hand, they could end up cuddling while watching “The Princess Bride”, or they could all end up on the floor with Techno trying to kill them. Either way was a possibility.

He decided that starting the conversation would delay the inevitable. “So, Phil. What’d you want to burn?” he asked. He was, in fact, curious about this. Any chance for destruction and chaos was good in his book.

“Oh, just university, y’know. School is dumb,” Phil laughed. Darn it, he was trying to end the conversation to start the one he and Wilbur wanted!

“Mmm…” Techno nodded. There were several moments of silence, filled with his older brothers staring at him. He’d begun to feel rather cornered and awkward. “Fineeee… What do you want?”

Wilbur chuckled. “Well, we just wanted to know how your time with Dream went.”

“You probably already know, you snoop,” Techno deflected.

“That’s honestly true, but I do not know. So tell me,” Phil butted in.

“It went fine. We finished up the story. It was like Bonnie and Clyde but in space. Also Icarus. They literally got too close to the sun. Burned to a crisp they did. I also got to use Albertine and Augustus finally.”

“I see, I see. So… nothing else?”

“Uh, we got some snacks and water. Wilbur screamed from upstairs, called Dream a ‘Green Boy.’”

“Wil…”

“It was funny!”

“It probably was so I’m not going to care,” Phil said “Anyway, what kind of snacks did you have?” Really interrogative here, huh, Phil?

“He had sour cream and onion, and I—like the ungross person that I am—had caramel corn. Then we both had some water.”

“Eugh, sour cream, and onion. Even I’m not that gross, and I eat sand. I bet  _ anteaters  _ eat those.”

Phil laughed. “Of course you do! Why do we even have those? None of us eat them and I don’t think Mom or Dad do either.”

“Actually, I think those were for Dad. It is where Wilbur gets his taste from. Who the heck eats sand? And Dad does have some weird food taste,” Technoblade elucidated.

“True,” Philza agreed. “I’m glad we have normal food tastes like Mum.” Techno nodded along.

“Techno literally eats mostly cheeseburgers and tacos!” Wilbur exclaimed. “How is that normal!?”

“It’s better than  _ sand _ , and that’s not all I eat. I also eat caramel corn and other things your small mind just can’t comprehend.”

“Uh-huh, sure.”

“It appears, Techno, that as you wanted, we have strayed from the original topic. So, I will ask you another question. How did you and Dream get along? I don’t see any smashed up things, so it couldn’t have been too badly.”

“They were making love,” Wilbur bluntly said.

A mad blush crawled up Techno’s face. “We were not! If anything that’s you and Dream! Not us. And, Phil, I think we got along pretty well. There was a bit of arguing, but nothing over punching each other. So don’t you worry.”

“Okay… What do you guys want to do now? We have dance today, and Tommy is staying home. That’s in another half hour though,” Phil said after a few moments of silence.

“It’s 4:30?” Wilbur asked. Phil nodded. “Well, I want a snack before ballet, and then I have to put my things together.”

“Alright, I think I’ll join you as long as you aren’t having sand for a snack.”

“That was one time! And I was drunk!”

“One time too many,” Techno replied. “I’ve got things to do, and I already ate, so I’ll be in my room if ya need me.”

Techno got up from his spot on the couch and went to his room. Before that, he picked up his things to carry with him.

His room was dark when he entered; the curtains covering the windows had yet to be pulled back because Techno doesn’t do that in the morning and he was busy when he got home. So, once he had his things sat down, he pulled the creamy blue curtains away from the windows to let light in. Techno would probably close them when he got back from practice, but having them open for a short while always seemed to up his mood anyway, even if he wasn’t in his room while they were open.

Earlier, when he said he had things to do he meant that he wanted to put his things together, and then read until it was time to go. So that was what he did after he changed into what he’d wear for ballet practice. Dance belt and all. He’d grown used to the feeling of it on but still complained about it to his brothers. He pulled his sweatshirt and joggers over those clothes and fell into his bed to read.

Pages before he finished the book, Wilbur came into his room. He didn’t look up. He was  _ going  _ to finish that book.

“Techno, it’s time to go, not read, so come on,” Wilbur said irritatedly.

Technoblade groaned, but he got up anyway. Sticking his bookmark at the place he stopped at, he stood up. He grabbed his dance bag and followed after Wilbur, who’d already left his room. He was tempted to go slowly so that Phil and Wilbur would have to wait for him, but then they’d all be late for practice, and none of them wanted that.

His older brothers were waiting by the door for him. Their shoes already on, and dance bags in hand. They usually just carried them around to throw stuff they wouldn’t need at the time in.

As he pulled on his Converse, Tommy came out of his room.

“Hey, Tommy, we’ll be leaving once Techno’s done, so remember to eat dinner,” Phil said.

“Or don’t, and starve,” Wilbur added. Tommy gaped indignantly at him but had yet to say anything.

“Or don’t, and wait for us to come home with Taco Bell,” Techno ended. This was in fact a ploy to get Taco Bell, but that wasn’t the point.

He knew that Taco Bell would ruin the “diet” that he followed for ballet, Wilbur’s too, but it was so oftenly gone against that they didn’t care anymore. The two would probably just strictly follow the diet to a tee for a week to adjust for the slip.

“Alright, Taco Bell! Nice Big T. I expect my usual and no, Wilbur if anything it should be you starving. You deserve it more. Just looking at your face and I can tell that,” Tommy thanked and insulted.

As Wilbur and Tommy began to bicker, Phil sighed and went over to the coat rack. On the very bottom of it was a drawer. In the drawer, they kept their mom’s credit card. When they were out they’d leave a credit card with the brothers so that they could, y’know, not die from starvation. Oftentimes, Tommy would end up abusing this, but Phil or Techno usually set him straight. They all abused it sometimes, but if one of them abused it too much, their parents would take away their privileges.

Once he had ahold of the card, and Techno was ready to go, Phil called Wilbur over to go. By now, the two arguing brothers had made it over to the kitchen and were arguing while Tommy got a bowl of chips. Wilbur gave Tommy the middle finger after Phil called him but still made his way over. As they left the house, Tommy shouted expletives at Wilbur. Somehow, a few were aimed at Technoblade as well, to which he only responded to by slamming the door in Tommy’s face.

The walk to MCYT was pretty quiet for having three of the brothers alone, but then again, they were the quieter ones. That’s not saying much though, the walk also had some petty arguing between the three, but who’s counting?

The walk was quicker than normal because the fact that Wilbur was super cold, even with the sweater Wilbur was wearing. Phil and Techno were not. By the time they made it to MCYT, Wilbur was moaning and groaning and complaining and all the possible ways of being annoying and yelling about being cold. When they entered, Phil separated from them and went his own way to the ballroom section of the building while Techno and Wilbur went together to the ballet portion of the building. It was on the far left side of the building.

Techno had a small smile grow onto his face as he went through the doors that separated each part of the building. Ballet was Techno’s inspiration to everything he did in his life, he formed himself and what he did around ballet.

In this part of the building, an assortment of doors lined the right side of the hall and on the left were windows facing the road and parking lot. They walked down the hallway a while, passing by students of all ages, ranging from young elementary schoolers to adults and teenagers. Most of them were either waiting for their instructor or getting ready to leave. Down the hall, they went until they reached the door to their studio.

They were early, so there weren’t many in the studio, just the two brothers, another boy, two groups of around four girls, and Miss Niki. They said a quick hello to her before heading over to a door within the studio. It led to a large closet-like space where everyone tossed their things. They did what the space was used for before going through one of three doors splitting off from the closet. They were all bathroom/changing rooms for the dancers.

Most of the dancers got completely changed at the studio, but Techno didn’t, preferring to change at home and just remove his excess clothing at the studio. Along with putting on his ballet shoes, and putting his hair up, and other similar things.

While Wilbur entered one of the stalls to change, Techno didn't; he stayed and removed his excess clothing, his sweatshirt, and joggers. The joggers had been pulled off over his Converse, quite a task but Techno managed. After doing this, he went back into the closet and set the clothes in his duffle, taking out his ballet shoes and a small pouch of hair accessories. He left the slippers sitting on his duffle but brought the pouch back into the bathroom with him.

There, he looked to the mirror and quickly brought his hair into a bun, clipping a small golden crown pin into his hair next to his bun. Just one of a few rituals Techno followed before dancing. By this time, Wilbur had come out of the stall and walked out into the closet. Once Techno was finished, he picked up the pouch, zipped it, and followed his older brother’s move.

When he returned to the closet, he went over to Wilbur and where their things were. He sat beside his brother, who had started the long process of putting on ballet shoes. Techno followed this, first removing his shoes and setting them beside him.

As earlier mentioned, Techno, like most other dancers, had rituals he did before dancing. This was one of them. Starting with his right foot, he’d pull the once-knotted shoestring on the left, undoing the loop and repeating with the right one. From there, he’d loosen three of eight eyelets, then pulling the shoe off his foot. He did the same with his left foot, but instead of starting with the left shoestring, it’d be the right shoestring.

Once both shoes were off his feet, he’d pull off his socks, as always starting on the right and moving to the left. Being left in his tights now, the ballet shoes would now be next. Carefully, he slid them onto his feet. Both were on now, and he could adjust them. He knew that they would fit his feet as best they could, but he still had to adjust the ribbon and elastic. Done with that, Techno put his socks inside his bag, now taking out a water bottle, and setting his Converse on top of his bag once it was zippered closed.

Wilbur was now standing, and others had entered the closet, some heading to one of the bathrooms while some stayed at their bags. When he was prepared, Techno stood and followed Wilbur out of the closet and into their ballet studio where Miss Niki would be waiting. 

They’d start with warmups while Miss Niki gave them a briefing, after that she’d help a few others with positions and such before having the class break up into groups. From there, she’d have the groups figure out a dance they could all agree on to do for the spring season. Then, she’d collect all the groups’ ideas and stockpile them until it was time to start working on the spring season’s ballet. During this winter season, there would be no big ballet dance like the fall season. This season would be centered around performance levels and upping the current productivity of practice. Along with each dancer’s individual ability.

Techno was excited for this work, despite knowing all the ups and downs of it, the possible thought of injury or break was in his mind, but in front of it, all was the thought of all the fun he and his friends would have along the way.

Ballet wasn’t just his inspiration or way of life. He breathed it. Being flawless was his goal, but over it all, dancing was his dream. He had never lived up to anyone’s expectations of him, not even his own because he constantly raised his standards. So he would never reach the top, he could always improve, there would always be someone better, but the thought of being able to grow onto a new plane in the dance world overlooked any doubt he could have on his dancing. In that moment, he knew he wasn’t perfect, he knew he wasn’t going to be the best, but what he did know was that the fun would outlast it.

Technoblade’s parents' expectations were interesting. When he was young, they wanted him to do hip-hop as his main style, so he was given hip-hop lessons until one year. The year he decided he wanted to do something different. So he begged and begged, and eventually it was provided ballet. Then ballroom dancing. He knew they were proud of him, of his accomplishments, but not enough for his egotistical-self. Techno was thankful for their growing support, and his brothers’ everlasting support, but he wanted something more. He wanted someone to perform for.

Techno knew of people that performed for people. They were the ones on top, they had something to dance for besides themselves, and although dancing for yourself was great, so was having that special someone to dance for. He didn’t know when his someone would come, but he hoped it would be soon, advancing onto another plane of dancing would probably require the highest level of support and love he could get.

But hey, for now, Techno could live with what he had. Having exactly what he wanted didn’t appeal to Techno, he wanted to work for what he had. He knew that there was always that fear of growing bored of his goals, but a dream? Never. Dreams were like a force. A force that couldn’t be touched on this mortal plane of existence. So he’d have to ascend beyond his understanding. But hey, he’d been told he’d done the impossible before, so what couldn’t he do?

With his body starting in fourth position, and thoughts elsewhere, Techno made an almost perfect series of nine pirouettes. Clapping beside him brought him out of his reflecting. It was Miss Niki.

He smiled, taking a bow. While bent down, she reached her and up to his head and gave it a pat. This made his smile even greater, and when she left and he was standing straight once more, Wilbur leaned over to him.

“If I don’t get a head pat before the end of practice, expect penises drawn on your face in the morning,” he whispered.

Techno hates his brothers, but at the same time, they were pretty great.

“And if I don’t get my dignity back before the end of practice, expect yourself not to exist,” Techno countered.

Because being around them was pretty cool. They had some fun times together. And Techno couldn’t wait for more.

**Brothers don’t necessarily have to say anything to each other—they can sit in a room and be together and just be completely comfortable with each other.** **  
** **\- Leonardo DiCaprio**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Currently, I'm working on the 8th chapter of this (I work ahead so I'll never leave you guys waiting on a chapter), and I've got so many ideas for this book. I don't know how long it'll be, but know that currently, my word count is roughly 45,000. :)
> 
> SELF PROMO  
> Twitter: FakeK or my @ FaketheKay


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream doesn't know what's going on, but he needs to.

Techno. Techno. That was what went through Dream’s mind until he made it back to his house. Actually, it was all that went through his mind.

He didn’t have dance that day, so that couldn’t distract him. His friends were off doing their own things. George with Quackity and Sapnap with Karl. There was literally nothing that could’ve been on his mind besides Technoblade.

As soon as he made it into the house and removed his shoes, he made a beeline for his room, planning on spending the rest of his life there. Stuck in his mind, Dream absently changed into PJs and sat down at his desk. He held his head in his hands, and when he shut his eyes, he saw pink. All shades of the stuff. Light, dark, rose.

Techno was practically rich, or well, his family was. His parents were. Speaking of which, where were his parents? He’d heard them spoken of before, but never seen them. Techno’s house was huge and very nice. Yes, Dream had totally snooped. I mean, who wouldn’t? He was in a large house he’d never been in before, and it was the house of someone he desperately wanted to be friends with. (Also there was a door open.)

So, Dream looked around for a minute or so. He didn’t want to get caught because he felt that that might limit his chance of becoming Techno’s friend. The door that had been left open was the room closest to the front door. It appeared to be Tommy’s room. Seeing as when he had been made angry that was the room he had gone into. Ah, yes, Techno’s family and their interactions.

Like, what did Philza want to burn? Is he really a green boy? Why did Techno look so comfortable and warm in his comfy clothes? Wait, Dream, isn't that why comfy clothes are called comfy clothes, because they are comfortable? Oh yes, I suppose Dream, you are correct. Thank you!

Dream wasn’t particularly scared off by Phil’s want to burn something. He was friends with an arsonist after all. But the interactions he’d previously had with Phil made it seem like he was quite a calm and nonviolent person. Obviously. That was not true. He was, after all, siblings with Wilbur, Tommy, and Technoblade.

Now Dream is completely sidetracked. Back to what he saw while snooping.

Tommy’s room was surprisingly cleaner than Dream had expected it to be. Sure, the bed was a complete mess of blankets, but overall, there wasn't much crap on the floor. The trash can next to the desk in the far back of the room was full of Coca-cola and Pepsi cans along with several chocolate wrappers. His desk had two monitors on it. He was fourteen, why did he need two monitors? Along the walls were several posters and stuff hanging up. On the left side of the room, near his bed, were many records hanging on the wall. There was a single reddish one that was labeled as “Pigstep”, but all that came to mind was “Pigstep” by Sleepy Bois Inc. It had to be that, but how did he get a record copy of it, and why did he have it in the first place? He must have been a fan of SBI.

Speaking of them, they were the DreamTeam’s rivals in the street performance and dancing community. They often did way fewer performances than the DreamTeam, but they were often extremely put together and had everything nailed. The music they used was often composed by themselves, and done quite nicely. They had to have someone put together the choreography for the music specifically for them because their music was completely different than anything else Dream had seen.

Back to Tommy’s room.

He also had a record player in his room, along with a strange log set on a shelf, it had been labeled as the Prime Log and a fake styrofoam apple sat on top of it. Why? Dream had no clue.

That was all of his room that Dream saw before deciding that he had the possibility to get caught, so he went and got his stuff out while sitting on the couch. Techno came back from his room a little bit after with his things. The couch was beige, along with one of the other chairs in the room, the one in the right corner of the room as in front of a window, and was a weird color of orange.

When Techno returned and went to get snacks and drinks for the two, Dream’s eyes followed him. The kitchen was pretty big and the dining room was medium-sized. All it held was a table with six chairs at it and a ceiling-tall bookshelf. This kitchen also had a breakfast bar of sorts, like Bad’s house, three stools were at this one though. The counters were a whitish stone, probably marble or quartz, and the cabinets were dark blue. Quite expensive-looking. For housing four boys, the kitchen was fairly clean looking. Yes, there was an assortment of crumbs scattered across the counter, but no dirty dishes were sitting in the sink.

They’d had some interesting conversations while Dream was there. Notably, the one where Wilbur called him a green boy, and when Phil and Tommy were back at the house. But to Dream what stood out most was after only a short time of spending time with Techno, they had grown comfortable with each other and were constantly joking around with each other. It was a nice difference between how it’d started. Dream totally knew that Techno had originally forgotten about him, but everyone's human so he wasn’t angry or anything.

Technoblade would casually make fun of Dream, and he’d do the same. No feelings were hurt. Maybe a few egos were damaged, but everyone needed to be dragged down a few steps sometimes. It made Dream’s heart sing with how beautifully they complimented each other. After all, green and red are complementary colors. They were supposed to be like at. (We’re going to ignore that Techno is usually associated with pink for the sake of Dream’s fantasies. Pink and red are basically the same things anyway.)

His thoughts of that day’s events were interrupted by the growling of his stomach. Gosh, he was hungry. How long had he been sitting at his desk anyway? Dream looked out his window but remembered it wouldn’t tell him anything because it got dark earlier than in the summer when he could actually tell what time of day it was based on the sun’s position in the sky. Opening up his phone, he checked the time. 5:21 PM it read. Okay, Dream had gotten back at like 4:42. He hadn’t been sitting there for  _ that  _ long. He was hungry though.

Dream stretched, sitting in that position for about 40 minutes had not felt good on his back. He made his way downstairs, his stomach gurgling and groaning all the way. He had eaten a snack at Techno's. Why was he so hungry? Did thinking really use up that much of his energy?

When he reached the kitchen, he saw his mother preparing supper. She was still in her work clothes, and she must have just gotten home.

“Hey Mom, what’s for supper?” he asked.

His mom turned around to face him. She had the sleeves of her blouse pushed up, and a light brown apron covered her front.

“Hi, sweetie! I figured we’d just have pancakes. Easy enough, and yummy,” she answered. Dream nodded.

“How about you go and change into some comfy clothes and I’ll finish up dinner.”

“Dream, you don’t have to, you know.”

“But I will.” Dream gently pushed his mom aside and took up her spot, taking the whisk from her hand. He now began whisking up the ingredients.

His mother sighed. “Fine,” she complied, “but make sure to put chocolate chips in them. You know Drista and you both won’t eat them without.”

“Right!”

Finally, Dream’s mom left the kitchen and went to her room while Dream got started with finishing the pancakes. The batter was about halfway done already, so it wouldn’t take too much longer.

And he was correct, a few minutes later and he was adding the last ingredient, chocolate chips. Once those were added, Dream poured the first bit of batter into a frying pan on the stove. When that one finished, he started the next, and the next after that. Soon, several pancakes had been made. More than enough for the three who would be eating them, so they could have leftover ones for breakfast tomorrow.

“Drista!” Dream called upstairs. Then going back into the kitchen where his mom was waiting.

After a minute or so, Drista was standing next to Dream.

“Alright, are we ready to eat?” their mom questioned. Both nodded, and Drista started getting her food. 

Unlike many other families, they ate at the table and together. No one was allowed to leave and go to their room or eat somewhere else. This only didn't apply when someone had friends over, or they wanted to watch a movie during dinner. Then, they’d all sit in the living room and eat.

And, as they were a family, they fought. A lot. Especially at the table.

“Where’s the salt?” The siblings’ mother asked.

“Oh, I used the last of it earlier,” Drista answered, not looking up from her food. She simply continued eating. After all, she didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Apparently, her mom and Dream did not agree.

“You’re supposed to replace the salt when you finish it!”

“I didn’t know!”

“You did too! You’ve known for ages, but I’ve never seen you actually do it!” Dream exclaimed.

“Well, I’d never gotten in trouble before, so it didn’t matter.”

“ _ Well _ , you will if you don’t fill it up right now.”

Angrily, Drista pushed her chair out, snatching up the salt shaker, and marching into the kitchen. From there, she went to fill it up. In the process, salt spilled all over. Dream laughed.

“You try it, you bit-” Drista shouted.

“Ah, ah, ah,” their mother tutted, “remember the rules, no cursing, no spitting, and definitely no cutting steak with a spoon.”

“Fine…”

While their mom wasn’t looking, Dream stuck his tongue out at Drista. Who, finally done with her task, came back over and picked up her fork. She leaned over the table and began trying to force the fork into Dream’s eyes.

“Hey! Stop it!” Dream exclaimed, drawing the attention of their mom. He held Drista back with his arms, making sure that fork came no closer to his eyes. He would prefer not to go blind, thank you very much.

Dream was busy trying not to get stabbed, and his mother was sitting there.  _ Laughing _ . How could she find this funny!? Her son was close to going blind!

After another minute of fending off a feral sister, Dream was lucky, because his mother finally intervened.

“Alright, alright. Calm down Drista. Take that fork away from your brother’s eyes. He might need them later,” she said. Drista took the fork away. “I think it’s time to start eating again.”

Drista groaned, but went back to her seat, carrying the fork with her. Dream let out a sigh of relief. His sister was literally feral. It must have come from hanging out with Tommy.

_ No, I think she’s been like that since she was born. Glad  _ I’m  _ not like that.  _

Dinner finished, and Dream went back to his room. He had decided that he wanted to talk to George and Sapnap, they had to be done with whatever they had done that day by now.

So, he called them, and he was correct, they were in fact back at home. Well, actually, Sapnap was sitting in the tree in his backyard, but we’ll ignore the fact that he is a literal cat—an absolute terror that destroys everything, but sometimes super sweet and cuddly, and he did whatever he wanted.

“Hi Dweam,” George greeted, putting on a baby voice.

“Hewwo Dreamie Poo,” Sapnap did the same.

“What is wrong with you guys?” Dream laughed. He put them on speaker so he could clean up his room as they spoke.

Both of them ignored him. “What did you do today that you were  _ so  _ busy with that you couldn’t hang out with me?” 

“Yeah, you didn’t even tell us what you were doing.”

“You had other things to do today anyway! Both of you. And I was working on an assignment with Technoblade.”

“Oh, what kind of assignment?” Were they really going to interrogate him?

“What do you think? Creative Writing obviously. What were you doing with Quackity?”

“Wow, not even gonna  _ ask  _ me how  _ my  _ day was.”

“Everyone  _ knows  _ how  _ your  _ day went.” Dream ‘mhmed’ in agreement. “And we were making fun of TikTokers and playing Roblox.”

“Maybe you should’ve been making fun of yourselves.”

“HEY! We had fun, and you’re just a meanie who would rather I spend all my time with you instead of anyone else.”

“Yeah, Dream! Would rather spend all his time with Goerge when he obviously wants to give me a kiss!”

“I’m not kissing either of you, you nasties.”

“George give me a kiss!”

“No!”

“Come on George. You know you want to!”

“Know I don’t! And I will literally hang up if you don’t stop.”

“Fine…”

Sapnap sighed. “Alright.”

“Anyway, Dream, what are we doing about our current standing competition with Sleepy Bois Inc.?” George asked.

Oh right… Dream forgot about that… 

“Um… well… We know that they’ll have something good planned. They don’t perform that often, and their performances are always really good. Many people are going to show up, but instead of performing that same day, we scope them out. Sure, we’ll see the video of the performance on their Twitter or whatever, but I bet it’ll be different from in-person,” Dream divulged.

“Alright, alright…” Sapnap started, “So, uh… when is that again?”

“This weekend on Saturday. I think it’s at like 4:30.”

“‘Kay.”

“George, can you bring the snacks?”

“Sure.”

“Good, good.”

A loud shout was heard from Sapnap’s end. “Oh-uh… I gotta head out, boys. Momma needs me for somethin’.”

“Finally…” George muttered.

“Hey!”

“Bye Sapnap!” George was now covering it up.

“I heard th-” Sapnap disconnected.

“Well, that was rude.”

Dream started wheezing. Dying even. Possibly even… ascending to heck. (Yes, you could totally ascend to heck, but only when you’re already in hell.)

“Shut up, Dream!” This just made him laugh even more, which in turn made Goerge laugh. An endless cycle is what this was.

After several, several minutes, they had calmed down, with Dream catching his breath while George began speaking.

“Alright, I’ve got it marked on my calendar, but I think it’s time we get off the phone. It’s almost eight now.”

“It is?” Dream asked, he didn’t think they’d been on the phone that long. At least he’d gotten his clothes picked up in that time. Now, he was just laying on his floor.

“Yeah… it’s 7:48 now.”

“Oh, okay. Bye GeOrGE. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye, DrEaM.”

Goerge hung up, and Dream shut off his phone and went to his desk. He had some thinking to do, and this time, it wasn’t revolving around Technoblade.

“Right…” Dream groaned as he turned his computer on. He had two monitors, but a child didn’t need two monitors. What the heck did he even do with them? Stream po-

_ No, Dream, don’t think that. Don’t relive that memory. _

SBI.

Sleepy Bois Inc.

They were a hip-hop dancing group consisting of four guys. No one really knew their names as they’d never really told anyone what they were, but people had supposedly heard them call each other things. Two blondes, one with chin-length hair and the other with shorter, fluffier hair. The one with longer hair was quite shorter than everyone else in the group. A brunette with curly hair and a sort of similar style to the taller blonde. The last one didn’t dance like the others, or at least not as much. They seemed to be the coordinator or something along those lines. They had messy pink hair, always covered by a white beanie with a pig nose embroidered on and always in a ponytail that stuck out the bottom of the hat.

The shorter blonde had supposedly been called, “-Minecraft,” no one knew the first word that was said, but they knew it was there. It was a weird name though, Minecraft was a block game. Dream wasn’t criticizing it, he played it too. It was still a weird stage name. The taller blonde called himself “Big Man”, but none of his dance mates did that. They often whacked him when he did it anyway. Someone supposedly heard him called “-Innit”, but this was even more unlikely than the first. The brunette was simply called “Soot.” No one knew why he was called that, but that was it. And last but not least, the pinkie. They were called the “Blood God.” Blood red eyes, and apparently obsessed with blood or something. Dream didn’t understand it, but it was better than being called Snapmap like Sapnap.

He still didn’t understand how people didn’t notice that “Snapmap” was Sapnap. There was literally only a two-letter difference. People are really dumb. George was Gogy, and Dream simply didn’t give himself a name, people didn’t seem to either.

Dream had spoken to them a few times. Not too many, but they were rival hip-hop groups, so there had to be something that sparked the rivalry, and truly, it was from one simple tweet. Specifically from Dream on the DreamTeam’s Twitter. He had previously discovered SBI and seen a bit of their stuff, feeling the urge to spark an argument without consulting Sapnap and George, he did. And they got… sort of mad at him, but the real fun stuff was in SBI’s response.

The fact is, there was no response. Until there was a “dance battle” of sorts proposed. That got SBI’s attention, though eventually, the “dance battle” idea was scrapped and it never happened. Still, Dream hoped for an opportunity to actually have a real competition against them and not just the validation of his fans and stans praising him.

He lightly hit his head twice against his desk, groaning. Dream didn’t know what to do, and that was a problem. So many things seemed to be going on at once, and it was all just a jumbled mess in his mind, no matter how hard he pushed for it to be organized. But at the same time, it felt absolutely empty of ideas.

Lifting his head up, Dream brought his eyes to his computer screen for a moment before making a decision, he’d put on some music and think for a bit. See if it could calm his mind some. It usually did, and it also helped with his ADHD sometimes. He thought it had something to do with how much music he listened to for dance. Dancing fueled him and got his body moving which helped calm his ADHD.

An hour passed, probably. Dream didn’t actually know, but at some point, he got an idea and had spent his time writing it out. It was the only thing he could come up with, yet it seemed like a pretty good idea.

His idea was similar to what he’d told Sapnap and Goerge, but he was simply going to expand onto it. After the show, they would, in DreamTeam outfits, speak with SBI. Hopefully, they’d get to do something with them. Maybe schedule a competition or just do like a dance with them. That’d be cool, and it’d be good exposure for both of them. Dream could also get closer to the group and the pinkette within it. Oh, did he forget to mention that he may or may not have a very small crush on the pinkette? Oops.

They were just really interesting! Dream knew he wasn’t _ in love _ with him. That would require being friends first and have a close relationship. They didn't have either of those things, Dream had a crush on their image. The Blood God had the prettiest of hair and eyes, good style, and he liked dance. All great traits, but truly, he had only spoken briefly with them. He needed more of an opinion on him before making any serious moves.

By now, it was almost 10 PM. Dream had to go to bed at 11, otherwise, his mom would be angry and he would be cranky, so it was just better all-around if he went to bed then. Noticing this, Dream moved his eyes away from his computer screen and began to stand. He’d take a quick shower, change back into his PJs, and then go to bed after some YouTube if he had some time.

And that was what he did.

Wednesday, Dream would say, went well. The classes went well, his story presentation with Technoblade went well. Oh, that was fun!

Techno didn’t like presenting that much, so Dream did most of the speaking. The presentation was reading out the story they wrote, then explaining how they came up with the idea and such. Techno read out the story because he didn’t have to look at the class while reading it out, he could just look at his laptop screen, where the words were. He did the explanation, as it required talking more to the class than just being able to look at a paper, and since he was the extrovert and not Techno, it just made sense. Dream was also willing to give Techno the opportunity to not have to speak in front of the class, something he was absolutely horrible at.

But now, school was over and Dream was over at Bad’s house with George and Sapnap. They were filling him in on what they discussed the day before, and Dream told them of his plan. They gave the okay for the plan to go through, although there were quite a few complaints from George. Apparently, he had some beef with Soot. Something about pretending to be each other? Dream didn’t understand, but whatever.

As basically the PR of the DreamTeam, Bad had to be informed.

“Dream, I could’ve helped you plan this! You didn’t have to do it yourself, you muffin. I bet this took a long time,” Bad commented after being told the idea.

“Uh…” Dream was not ready to admit how late and how long he worked on this. “It didn’t take  _ that  _ long, and it wasn’t  _ that  _ hard. I was fine.” Man, he was so good at lying.

_ Man, I’m so bad at lying. _

“Right…” George murmured.

“So, should I come with you guys then? That way you don’t get into some fight or something and get distracted from the goal. Ultimately forgetting, and then no collab.”

“Yeah, that’s goo-”

“He just wants to see Skeppy! He’s always at SBI’s performances!” Sapnap interrupted.

“Not true! You know that you guys will get into trouble if I don’t come along!”

“Come on, Pandas, just let him live his lies. He is right though, we will probably get into trouble if he isn’t there.”

“You mean you two will get into trouble. I won’t because I’m actually responsible.”

Sapnap and Dream laughed.

“Why is Skeppy at their stuff though? I’ve seen them talk together before afterward, too,” Dream asked.

“Oh! I can answer that. They’re all friends. Sometimes I’ll go with Skeppy, and as you said, talk to them after. They’re really nice!” Bad explained.

“You’ve talked to them a lot?” George questioned.

“Well, not a lot, but yeah. I wouldn’t just lie, you muffin!”

Bickering continued for another ten minutes or so before George, Sapnap, and Dream needed to get ready to go to MCYT. They may have gotten ready at the studio on Monday, but usually, they got ready at their or Bad’s house. Today, they were getting ready at Bad’s (obviously).

Dream and Technoblade had been talking more than they used to. See: like the two texts they had previously sent each other before the project they just did together. He was glad for this because it helped his campaign of becoming Techno’s friend. Determination lived in Dream’s blood, and it wasn’t just going to leave for one idea. No way, it was always there, always watching and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. And boy, had it struck hard this time.

Dream had thought about messaging Techno that he was going to practice now but then realized that Techno was in fact in practice currently, and they weren’t that close of friends yet. Not the kind that messaged each other where they were going without getting prompted especially. So, he didn’t.

They were now on their way to MCYT for class. Talking about ideas for a new street performance, and how they’d get a hold of the choreography for one. They didn’t know anybody who made choreography professionally, so they had always just scrounged around to find something or did a very poor job of making one before ultimately getting it a different way. Dream didn’t know how Sleepy Bois Inc. managed to make their own music, and write their own choreography like really, that’s a lot of amazing skills for a group of four. Why couldn’t Sapnap have one of those? He needed something better to spend his time doing after all.

Now, they had arrived at MCYT. Heading in, they passed an extremely tall boy. Like taller than Dream tall. He had the palest skin Dream had ever seen, and his hair was split black and white. The left side white and the right side black. The white almost matched his skin. Not to mention the fact that vitiligo covered splotches of his skin. The darker portion covered the right side of his face mostly, where his hair was black. It was pretty evenly cut, and it was surprising that it was natural. He recognized him as someone who did ballroom with Techno. He also believed that he hung around Techno sometimes. What was his name? Ran...boob? Well, whatever his name was, Dream was going to talk to him because George and Sapnap had just gone to the bathroom and Dream thought that Technoblade usually walked home with this guy and another one.

“Hey!” Dream called. Ranboob turned around, tilting his head in question. Dream walked closer to him. “Hi, I’m Dream. You’re Ranboob, right?”

Ranboo sighed. “No, please don’t call me that. Fundy already calls me that, I don’t need another,” he begged. “What did you need?”

“Don’t you usually walk home with Technoblade and that other guy?”

“Uh… Eret? Yeah, Techno and Eret don’t have dance today, so it’s just me.”

“Oh… okay.”

“Did you need them for something? I can relay a message.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. It doesn’t matter too much. I can just tell Techno later.” Why was Dream lying so much, and why did he want to know where Techno was? It didn’t affect him. Then again, he didn’t know that Techno didn’t have ballet or ballroom on Wednesdays, so he at least got some useful information from this interaction.

“Alright…” Ranboo walked off and out the door.

Dream sighed and then continued walking to the studio. Sapnap and George would catch up, even if they would yell at him for going on without them it wouldn’t matter too much.

The other two arrived a little later, immediately beginning to argue with Dream about leaving them. He argued right back because he easily got riled up, and it was fun.

Soon, they were told to stop by Captain. They still had practice. Once again, they were separated. Captain went with Minx and her group to work on stuff while the larger group was sent to the other side of the studio to be divided into two groups. The other two choreographers had arrived and were going to begin teaching them their new dances.

When the group was divided up, Dream was on a different dance than his other two friends, but he didn’t mind that much, he made friends easily, and as quiet and reclusive as Punz was, they had a partnership. They’d hang out together when they were on a dance together.

Their group was sent into a totally different studio room, and by the time they were all situated in the new room, Punz and Dream were standing a few feet from each other. Everyone was already ready for the choreographer to speak. They had gone through the motions before, they knew the drill. In fact, some of them—Dream and Punz were part of this—had experienced this choreographer before, they were known for being tough on their students.

The two were put towards the back by the choreographer as they weren’t the main attraction of this dance. The choreographer was known for knocking people off a dance if they didn’t fit it, or they just weren’t competent enough for it. Corpse, a senior, and a friend of his that Dream didn’t know was put as the focal point of this dance. In the end, Punz and Dream were still next to each other, so neither minded.

As the dance got explained by the director, it was made clear that their usual standards would stay in place. It was also made known that the dance would have multiple focal points. At one point, a different group of two would slide up and take Corpse and his friend’s places. In fact, the focal point would switch three times. Starting with a group of three, then Corpse and his friend, then another group of three.

Groups of three were very common in hip-hop dancing, two and four were pretty common too.

Then, they found out they were doing “Taki Taki.” It was an upbeat song with an easy beat. Meaning that it was strong and fun to dance to. You didn’t have to go searching for the beat. It was right there in front of you. Very repetitive too.

As the director did a run through demonstration, Dream wondered what Sapnap and George were up to before immediately snapping his mind back to what was going on in front of him. Dance. Him dancing. Pay attention.

The demonstration showed how sensual the dance was going to be, as much of the dances they did. Dream didn’t care though, he’d grown used to the nature of hip-hop dancing. Typically, he liked doing it, it made him feel good about himself. Like he was flaunting and everyone was watching and enjoying it. Dancing made him the center of attention, it made him feel like he ruled the world, and it was fantastic.

It was fast—as most of the dances Dream did were—but he could handle it, it was his norm.

Dream, Punz, and Purpled were in one of the three groups, and the last one had Finnster, Pokimane, and TapL in it. Finn was known for his dances where he’d basically become an e-girl. They were often very fun performances, he often hung out with Skeppy and has done quite a few gigs with him. Pokimane was newer to the class, but fit in nonetheless. Apparently, someone had made a statue of her. Dream didn’t know a whole lot about TapL, but he seemed pretty cool and chill. He also knew that he liked apples.

_ An apple a day keeps the doctor away…  _

The song, along with being sensual, had very smooth movements. This was something that the choreographer stressed and stressed. That night, they would learn the chorus and the instrumental section after it.

_ Báilame como si fuera la última vez _

_ Y enséñame ese pasito que no sé _

_ Un besito bien suavecito, bebé _

_ Taki Taki _

_ Taki Taki _

They listened through the whole song twice before just straight up only listening to the chorus and instrumental. And soon, it was ingrained in each of the dancer’s heads. The instrumental part was short, but they’d be doing a lot of movement during it.

There was a lot of hip rolling, but it was nothing that Dream hadn’t learned or not known how to do. Hip rolling tended to make someone who wasn’t or hadn’t practiced or done it for a long time’s stomach ache. With the fast pace and rapid movements, it made sense, but Dream knew better.

For Dream’s group, Purpled was in front with Dream and Punz a bit behind in a triangle form. Purpled would do the leading, and Dream and Punx the backup. Even though Dream loved being the center of attention —the star—he also loved it when a dancer that didn’t usually get to be in the front got their chance to shine.

“Alright, Dream, Punz, I want you to milk out your movements. Remember, you are the background, not the foreground, but this doesn't mean you can slack. I know this is the first day, but we can’t have bad habits form,” they explained. “I want every one of you to have an experience and to have learned something by the end of this. That won’t happen if someone doesn’t hold up their own.

“I expect the best out of all of you. If you can’t handle that, leave.”

No one left.

“Okay! Purpled, your movement, unlike Dream’s and Punz’s needs to be quick and snappy. Those two are dragging out the long beats, you’re on the chorus beat. Got it?” Purpled nodded. “I know you’re not used to being in the front, but I want you to have the confidence of someone who’s been in the spotlight all their life. Think… uh… Leonardo DiCaprio! He’s been acting since he was 15.” He nodded once more.

They now turned to Punz. “You are dragging your right foot on the ground a bit. Stop that. I know you can do better.” Punz straightened, giving a stiff nod. “Loosen up, too.”

After a bit more rehearsing with their group, their director had them switch lines. That meant that Finn’s group would go up next as Corpse’s had gone before Dream’s.

Dream’s group would move over to the side and go over what had just been gone over with their choreographer. If one of them noticed a mess-up of another, they’d mention it. Overall, Dream, Punz, and Purpled worked well together. They were all hard workers that could get their things done without help, but assistance was always welcome. 

Practice was finally over, and Dream was free from its torture (this is a joke, Dream loves practice). His muscles felt like jelly, his sweat glands were practically empty, and his bones felt broken without the pain. He knew this meant that practice had been productive and had gone great, but it certainly wasn’t making him feel any better physically. Even mentally it was a lost cause.

He met up with George and Sapnap in the locker room. He  _ needed  _ to change, his clothes were so sweaty and gross. Leaving Punz and Purpled—he had walked in with them—he walked over to George, Sapnap, and his lockers. Both were halfway changed, turning to face him when he came up behind them.

“Hey Dream,” George greeted. “You’re… uh…. You’re sweaty. Leave.”

“Hey, hey, not nice! Leave him alone, Georgie. We like him sweaty,” Sapnap said.

“Yeah, George, listen to Pandas,” Dream added. “And I need to change. Scoot.” He lightly shoved the two to the side because they were standing in front of his locker.

They changed in silence. Dream knew he would want and need a shower when he got home. He also knew that even if he didn’t want to take one, his mother and probably his sister too would make him.

Soon, the three were ready to go and began to walk out.

“So,” George prompted. “What did you do, Dreamie poo?”

“I was doing ‘Taki Taki.’ I think it’s going pretty well, and Punz and Purpled are in my line. What about you guys?” Dream responded.

“We’re doing ‘I Found.’ It’s so sad! I swear I was about to cry while listening to the song,” Sapnap admitted.

“He totally did.”

“I didn’t! I swear it! Now, I wanna head to the gas station, I wanna get a drink.”

Then, they began heading to the gas station. Sometimes, after a particularly hard practice or performance, or whatever really, they’d head down to this gas station and pick food up. Usually, it wasn’t legit food. Usually, it was a soda or drink, and some crappy junk food or ice cream.

Dream wanted to go to the gas station. He wanted to hang out with his friends longer, but his bones and muscles ached to be let go of this torture. All his body wanted to do was shower and sleep. But, he pressed on.

As the three walked, it was quiet, all except for the gentle thrum of the cars passing and city noises. This was what made Dream glad he lived where he did. The country was too quiet, the big city was too loud. Here it was great. They had all the necessities. Walmart, Dairy Queen, McDonald’s, etc. But not the stress of city life. Dream knew he was lucky. He had such great friends, was practically famous in his town—and he enjoyed it. His family was great.

The only thing he wanted was for SBI and Techno to be his friends. That was his only life goal. Well- not his  _ only  _ goal, but it was up there in his top ten goals.

Huh, he hadn’t thought about Technoblade for almost the whole night. Whether this was an accomplishment or not, Dream did not know. What he knew was that he was determined to get what he wanted, and he would, no matter what.

He could get Wilbur and Tommy to help him with his quest of becoming friends with Techno. They were his brothers, and way closer to Dream than Techno was. They weren’t best friends—that spot was reserved for George and Sapnap—but they had known each other for ages. Technically, Dream and Techno also knew each other for ages, but they weren’t close. That was what Dream was determined to change.

Maybe, he could get Tubbo’s help, maybe even Ranboo and that Eret guy’s help. He would take what he could get. As prideful as he was, Dream desperately wanted to be friends with Techno, and if that required making new friends and getting help, then so be it. Dream would live through it.

What he didn’t understand was why he so desperately wanted to be friends with Techno. He had never wanted to before. Maybe it was because he saw just the extent of his prowess. He did like being friends and benign with people who were talented and had talent. But, no. He knew that Techno had talent before the ballet. He had seen it in action before. Before, he still competed with him. It wasn’t like they just ignored each other before. Maybe, Dream had just ignored the pull before. Yeah, that seemed like something that Dream would do.

The silence between the three only lasted until they made it to the petrol station. It never did last long within the friend group, as all of them were rather loud. Dream was yanked from his thoughts when it came time they arrived at the station.

They each took over a part for the station, searching and searching for exactly what they wanted. Even though they almost always got the same thing or something similar, it was still fun to look around and not decide until later on the thing they always knew they were going to get.

Dream knew the employees—well not really, but they’d been here so many times when these employees were working that Dream had practically become friends with them. Dream knew that the employees found them very tiring. They were, after all, just college students usually. They didn’t want to be working at 9 PM, or even working at all. But you gotta do what you gotta do for Hot Pockets and that sweet thing called money and coffee.

They found their snacks and drinks surprisingly quickly for how fast they normally did, and maybe it was because they were all tired and didn’t even want to deal with their own shenanigans. The brain-dead college students seemed to be very happy about this fact. George paid after some bickering, and then they left the station to walk over to the empty lot behind it. It was just a field of grass, and they had established as where they hung out after going to the petrol station.

Silence was between them as they opened their chip bags and whatnot. After taking the first drink or bite of whatever, the silent ritual was over and they were laughing and yelling at each other and arguing. Wheezing and laughter filled the air. 

“No! Ponk was like, apparently, sacrificing cats or some crap, and Ant, like jumped him or somethin’. I swear he’s a crazy cat person,” Sapnap exclaimed.

“Yeah! Ponk was trying to do a ritual or something,” George confirmed. “I didn't know what the heck was going on.”

“No way!” Dream wheezed. Being with friends was nice.

They gossiped and spoke for half an hour—probably, Dream wasn’t sure. But soon, they all realized that it was time they left after Dream got a message from his mother yelling at him to get home. From there, they parted ways with a simple goodbye and went off on their own. They all lived in separate directions, so no one walked next to another for a bit.

As he walked, Dream got the sudden urge to message Techno or something. He pulled out his phone and opened up his contact, but sent nothing. He didn’t have a reason to send anything, he didn’t need to send anything. So why did he want to talk to him so badly?

To induce a conversation, Dream went into his camera roll and sent Techno a meme of some kind. He didn’t look at it too hard, he just wanted something to start a conversation on.

A minute or two later, Techno had responded.

**Techno**

**why’re you sending me memes at like 10pm???**

**Idk** **  
** **Felt like it**

**Well stop** **  
** **Some of us actually have things to do**

**and what do you have to do?** **  
** **watch anime or some weeb crap???**

**…**

**youre joking…** **  
** **oh my gosh** **  
** **I just want someone to talk to** **  
** **plz can we call??** **  
** **I’m on my way home from practice rn** **  
** **im bored** **  
** **Techno responddddddd**

**New phone who dis??**

**TECHNOOOOO**

**Bruhhhh** **  
** **Calling you now**

**1 incoming call from Techno**

**| ACCEPT | | DECLINE |**

**| ACCEPT |**

“Hulloooo,” Techno greeted.

“Hi,” Dream replied. There was now awkward silence.

“So, what did you oh so desperately need me for?”

“Entertainment.”

“Fair enough.” Techno began to hum into the empty silence. It seemed like he was working on something.

“Whatcha working on?”

“Uh… just a project thing that Wil and I do for fun.”

“Are you going to elaborate?”

“Perhaps.”

“Technoblade!”

“I won’t do it.”

“You’re no fun.”

Soon, a steady flow of conversation ensued. Even if it was mostly Dream doing the talking, and Techno just listening, it was nice to have this. Techno was finally becoming closer to Dream. And if Dream got home while they were on the phone and didn’t get off for another 15 minutes that was nobody’s business except his own.

**Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.** **  
** **\- Aristotle**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's Tales from the SMP was super cool! Loved it so much. No spoilers, of course (even tho I do want to rant).
> 
> Some Self Promo:  
> I happen to not only write Dreamnoblade, but also SBI stuff (and angsty SBI). Currently working on part three of a series that's SBI. If you want to read the first two, it's called Truths of Technoblade!  
> Twitter: FakeK or my @ FaketheK


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After what felt like WEEKS of waiting, Dream is finally going to see Sleepy Bois Inc. perform. The possibility of a potential partnership (tongue-twister) is also in view. If only George would wake up!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seriously didn't think I'd finish this one on schedule, but I finished it DAYS in advance. :P (It also might be one of the longest yet...)  
> Hope you enjoy it!!

It was officially Saturday. The day that Sleepy Bois Inc. would perform and the day Dream would, hopefully, be able to score the DreamTeam a partnership of sorts with them. He had his hopes. What he did not have his hopes up for was waking George up and arriving at the performance on time.

It was still morning—basically afternoon now, it was 11-ish—and they were going to meet up early and hang out at Bad’s for lunch. Dream had tried and tried again to call Goerge and wake him up but to no avail. He did not budge. Either that or Dream was being ignored, but that didn’t seem very likely. Seeing as the only time George had ever ignored him was a few times when they would get into heated arguments and not talk for a while, needing time to cool down mostly.

So, after it had been what felt like ages of calling Goerge and texting him to get up, and even asking Sapnap to try, Dream gave up. Ultimately deciding it wasn’t worth it, and there was still a chance he’d go to the performance, it was another four hours or so until then. So, having decided that, he takes inventory of what he was bringing with him.

Most of his things were at Bad’s, or what he’d bring with, but there was a bit that wasn’t. Dream would be bringing with him snacks since George had the potential of not being there, and he was the one who was supposed to. He grabbed a useless plastic bag and began to fill it up with some food. A bit of fruit, chips, cheese sticks—he’d eat the cheese sticks with Sapnap at Bad’s, so they wouldn’t spoil.

Today, he was wearing a pair of white-washed jeans and a white t-shirt with a dark green flannel over the top. He’d change at Bad’s, and currently, he wasn’t too worried about looking like an absolute beauty. Not to say that he had ever  _ not  _ looked like one (Drista would beg to differ).

Throwing on a pair of white socks before rushing downstairs, Dream looked at the pairs of shoes scattered around the entryway. He saw no pairs of his shoes except for a pair of sandals. Oh well. He shrugged to himself, he didn’t care about socks and sandals so he’d wear them. He’d get his boots at Bad’s anyway. George would care, but hey, he wasn’t here now was  _ he _ .

His mother was in the kitchen, so as soon as Dream had his things together, he shouted a goodbye at her. He heard the backend of her reply as he slammed the door shut behind him and began speed walking down the sidewalk.

He truly had no reason to be going as quick as he was, but he was fueled with adrenaline and pent up energy. It started last night and had made it so he had a hard time falling asleep. It came with having ADHD.

_ It starts at 4:30, Dream. You’re going to get there around 4-4:15. You don’t have to walk so fast, idiot! _

His legs made an attempt at slowing down, but in a fit of confusion, he fell to the ground. His legs had gone all straight and tied up-like, making him trip over himself and fall to the ground. Dream had barely made any progress from his house and he was already stumbling about. He moved to pull his knees up and lean his arms and head against them. Really not the best place to do so, in the middle of the sidewalk of a suburb, but he just felt like pouting for a moment. Which he did, before eventually rising himself off and dusting off his pants and bum. He had skinned his palms a bit and they stung, but band-aids never stuck there so there was nothing to do about it.

This time, he managed to slow his pace a bit, but it would still be considered fast-walking.

Dream arrived at Bad’s to find Sapnap also just arriving. He was arriving just as Sapnap was leaning his skateboard up against the side of the house in its usual place.

“Hey!” Dream called. Sapnap turned around.

“Hi,” Sapnap groaned, scratching his nose. He looked so tired. “I don’t understand why we had to be here so early, I still want to sleep…”

“It’s literally like 11:30 now. How can you be tired, Pandas?” The two entered Bad’s house. They didn’t need to knock, Bad knew they were coming, and they were friends.

“Yeah, too early.”

“You could’ve gone to bed earlier.”

“I stayed up to keep you company! I don’t know how you’re still not tired!”

Dream shrugged as he slid the sandals off his feet. Bad’s little sister was sitting on the couch watching a cartoon, so the two gave a quick hello to her and Bad’s mother before running up the stairs. He had a feeling that bad was either in his studio or room. Both of which were upstairs.

First, they went to his studio. If he wasn’t there at least they could set their things down. Bad was in fact there. He was sitting at his computer on some editing software with his headphones on. Even with the hindrance of ear usage, Bad still looked over to them as they walked in. Then sliding the headphones down to his neck, and gave them a wave and smile.

“Hi!” he greeted. “Still no George?”

Both Sapnap and Dream shook their heads, making their way to hang up the bags they carried.

“That muffin… Well, Mom is making some lasagna for lunch, I think. I’m working on a soundtrack right now, so you can do whatever.”

“Alright,” Sapnap said, going to sit in the corner by his trunk. Dream went to sit next to him, taking his phone along with him. Once he was sitting, he didn’t bother using it yet, he knew that they’d talk for a few minutes before they all went off to do their own things. Most times, they just needed a moment to settle in, and then they’d be talking.

“So, Dream, Bad, what’s the plan? Gimme the whole rundown,” Sapnap asked.

“Dude, we told you this earlier,” Dream replied.

“You didn’t give me  _ every  _ detail. Even  _ I  _ know that. Oh, are we gonna tell George what happened today? He’s totally not gonna show.”

_ At least he knows he’s dumb. _

“If you guys get the partnership then yes, at least some of it. Y’know I could just message Geppy and he could get you guys the partnership or whatever. It’d be much easier than whatever you muffins have planned,” Bad said.

“How does Skeppy even know them that well that he can get us in cahoots with them!?”

“Eh… y’know…”

“No, we really don’t know!”

Bad ignored them now. He was never good at lying, but was how Skeppy knew them really that secretive that Bad couldn’t tell them?

Sapnap groaned and Dream sighed. “Can I at least get another run-through of what we’re doing?” Sapnap asked.

“Alright, so the plan is we watch through the show, and at the end, we go and talk to SBI. No, Sapnap, you can’t harass them. We want competition or a partnership, not an all-out war,” Dream explained.

“But that’d get so much clout!”

“It’s not happening!”

“Fine…” Sapnap groaned, finally giving up and going onto his phone. Dream did the same, instantly opening up Twitter to scroll through it.

Soon, they were called downstairs for lunch. They all sat at the dining room table with Bad’s little sister in a highchair, and lasagna set on plates in front of them.

For once, Dream didn’t have to worry about getting stabbed by a fork at a meal because Bad’s family wouldn’t do that, but you want to know who would? Sapnap. And that was a problem because he’d been given an extra fork by accident and was currently lightly stabbing Dream’s thigh with it under the table. He tried to not let it show on his face, but he was getting so irritated, and he knew Sapnap knew.

He didn’t react to it at all during lunch though, so once it finished he was done with that torture. As soon as he could leave, he did, running back up the stairs and into the studio moving from his original spot on the floor to Bad’s chair. Seconds later, Sapnap came running in, then seeing Dream, he decided to _ jump on top _ of him. While he was in a chair with wheels. Was it a good idea? No, but when did Sapnap ever have good ideas?

In the end, this knocked the chair over, leaving Dream and Sapnap also falling over, quite painfully, I might add. Dream was crushed under Sapnap and was in an uncomfortable position. He’d landed with half of his back on the corner of the chair and his head bouncing hard on the back of it. He officially had a headache. When he blinked his eyes open, Bad and his mother were in the doorway looking down at them. Sapnap still laid on his chest even though, between the two of them, he was much more okay than Dream. He must’ve wanted to cuddle. They could do that later, currently, Dream was in an immense amount of discomfort.

“Sapnap…” Dream groaned, trying to push himself up. “You’re being gay again…”

Sapnap barely budged, just deciding to sit up instead, still on top of Dream.

“And?”

“My head feels like it exploded or some crap…”

Distantly, he registered Bad asking his mom to go and get Advil for him. Then he was being pulled up by Sapnap, held in his arms for a moment, before being set down in the newly upright chair. He must’ve really hit his head hard.

He was then handed a glass of water and a pill, Bad helped him swallow the pill and wash it down with water. He blinked rapidly, trying to get his mind to clear and defog.

“Dude, are you okay?” Sapnap asked just a bit worriedly. They did stupid stunts all the time (See: a few days ago), but this one wasn’t supposed to make Dream get a concussion.

“Ugh…” Dream groaned once again. “I’m-I think I’m sorta okay. At least, I’ll be okay in a bit. Just gimme a sec to adjust. It’s definitely not a concussion, just a massive headache.”

“Okay, good,” Bad sighed. His mother, who had been hovering around, decided that since Dream had been deemed “okay,” she could leave without fear of a mildly concussed child on her hands.

“Will you be alright by the time it’s time to go?”

“Yeah, for sure.” At the longest, Dream would be in this state for an hour. He might have a bump and bruise on his head, but his brain would be okay soon.

And he was mostly right. About an hour later, his head was feeling lots better, he was still a little woozy but nothing a glass of water and playing some MarioKart couldn’t fix. Sapnap booted up the Switch connected to Bad’s TV and handed a controller to Bad and Dream, keeping one for himself. Bad sat curled up in an armchair, and Dream was lying spread out on the couch. Sapnap scooted Dream’s legs out of the way a bit and sat down, throwing his legs over Dream as his came over Sapnap.

They played for a while, eventually, Bad’s mom gave them some leftover banana bread, and his sister came to watch them play. Bad even let his sister play a few rounds for him while he had to go help his mom. Dream and Sapnap obviously let her win. Though Sapnap might’ve actually been trying. Dream didn’t know.

And finally, after HOURS of waiting, it was time to get ready.

Dream put on his street outfit, and so did Sapnap. Bad simply threw on a black and red sweatshirt. Once he was dressed, he shifted his things into his bag. It was only 4 PM, but the goal was to get a decent spot, and the area of the performance was a ways off.

Lastly, Dream put on his mask, and three left the house with a simple goodbye and wave.

Sapnap grabbed his skateboard and rode after Bad and Dream who had already started walking.

Dream truly didn’t understand how people never noticed a man wearing greenscreen green and a smiley face mask in Bad’s neighborhood. Like, how did they not get spotted? Then again, much of Bad’s street had elderly people or young couples. Neither group had a very large presence in the DreamTeam’s outreach. Still, Dream didn’t understand why they weren’t questioned. According to Bad, who happened to help out some of the older people in the neighborhood for some extra cash, they thought it was just some new trend with the kids or something.

Currently, the group of three had given up on any chance that George would show, and were simply talking and complaining about crap.

“Look, Bad, I just don’t understand why you don’t make a move on Skeppy,” Sapnap lectured. “He could be stolen away at any moment.”

“I don’t like him like that!” Bad surmised. “And as I have said many times, he doesn’t like me like that either…”

“Right…”

“Where are we meeting with Skeppy, anyway?” Dream asked.

“He’ll find us, don’t worry. He always does.”

“That’s kinda creepy, bro…”

Bad ignored Sapnap, opting to stay quiet and continue walking towards the performance location. It was on the far right side of the town, basically the other side from where Bad’s house was. It was closer to George’s family’s apartment, so the more “city-like” side of town. And the specific area was a bit darker, it was kinda sus, to be honest, but it was where Sleepy Bois Inc. usually performed. It was in a little dead-end alley kind of thing, surrounded by two buildings. They normally performed in the corner of the two buildings while the audience stood around them. Graffiti lined a wall and a strange drawing was on the other. It had supposedly been made by one of SBI’s friends.

To Dream, a “famous” person himself, it felt weird to think of famous people having a real-life or friends that weren’t in the spotlight. He didn’t understand this because he hated it when people thought that of him or his friends, but he still sometimes did it himself.

Soon enough, they arrived at the spot. People were already there (they always were), but there were still people arriving and SBI were still setting up. Well… that was controversial.

Innit and Soot were arguing behind one of the speakers, not too loudly, but it was loud enough that people towards the front could hear it a little bit. Blood God and Minecraft looked extremely annoyed with them but were still setting things up without complaint.

No one noticed the DreamTeam walking through the crowd, trying to get a spot that they could see better from. Everyone seemed to be enraptured with the fight. When Sapnap, Dream, and Bad got to the spot Bad usually took residence in, they all looked to the group arguing.

After a few final seconds, Minecraft finally was fed up with the other two.

“Boys! Can you stop arguing for once! We have crap to do! And stop scuffing what we did!” he shouted.

This seemed to scare the other two into action, immediately stilling and going off to help. They worked side by side, still arguing in a whisper it appeared, but Minecraft didn’t get mad at them again after that. Blood God let their shoulders drop down in a sigh.

As this conflict ended, the audience began to talk in quiet murmurs, waiting for the show to begin. It was now around 4:20 (heh), and the show would start around 4:30, so all the DreamTeam had to do for now was not get be super obvious and get spotted in their little corner. The only reason they didn’t want to get spotted was because they wanted to let Sleepy Bois Inc. have the spotlight because, well, it was their show. Not the DreamTeam’s.

This would’ve stayed the case had Skeppy not arrived nine minutes later. A minute from starting time.

“HEY!” he called, running at the three’s spot on the concrete. Heads turned to follow him. Heds turned, and eyes saw.

Once Skeppy made it over, Bad pulled him by his sleeve. Leaning over to his ear to whisper, “Geppy, you weren’t supposed to be so loud, you muffin!”

He laughed, luckily this was close enough to start time that no one tried to come up to them (yet), but it was officially time to start and they hadn’t started yet.

The Blood God called Minecraft over to where he sat on the concrete in front of a speaker holding a laptop in his lap. Blood God nodded at something Minecraft said and stood, making his way to the other two, explaining something then heading towards the center.

“Uh… so, um… we’re currently having some technical difficulties. My laptop shut off…” he explained. “It will be a moment.” He returned to Minecraft, squatting down beside him.

His voice had always sounded so familiar to Dream in some weird and foreign way he didn’t understand.

Today, he wore a black and red sleeveless sweatshirt. The sleeves were sleeveless, but they went all the way to the edge of his shoulder. The black consisted of the sleeves down to just below his armpits and his hood. The rest of the hoodie was garnet red, along with the drawstrings. A little crown was on his upper chest on the left side. He had on his usual white beanie with the little pig nose embroidered on the front, and a pair of plain black high-waisted jeans and black combat boots with pink laces. He also had a pair of white fingerless gloves, and they looked clean. How did he do that with touching things that are dirty? His hair was kept mostly under the beanie, but a fluffy ponytail peeked out from beneath it. It poofed out into every crevice known to man.

Soot wore a pale yellow, v-neck sweater with a pair of dark jeans and a black beanie. The beanie had a little orca embroidered onto it, and he wore a simple pair of brown boots with yellow laces. Innit wore an outfit similar to the Blood God's, the red was on the upper part though, and instead of black, it was white. He had on some khaki joggers and similar boots to Soot, but his laces were red. He also wore a pair of sunglasses. Why? It wasn’t even sunny. Minecraft wore a white t-shirt under a nice black leather jacket. The back of the jacket had wings stitched on, and looked an almost green color. Along with a green and white striped hat that Dream swore he recognized, but couldn’t place, and black joggers. His boots were black and had green laces.

It wasn’t that Soot, Innit, and Minecraft’s outfits weren’t as interesting so they didn’t need as big of a description, it was that Dream took more notice of what the Blood God wore. He was the one Dream wanted approval most from. He’d spoken the least to Minecraft. In fact, he’d spoken more to Soot and Innit than he had the Blood God.

After about two minutes, the problem seemed to fix, and music started playing. It was officially time to start the performance, Dream guessed.

Soot and Innit were already in their places, and when the music started, the Blood God and Minecraft made their way over to their positions. Apparently, the Blood God was performing today.

The four stood in a straight line. Starting from the front was Innit, Minecraft, Soot, and the Blood God.

The song was very atypical for hip-hop dancing. Dream figured that they had it custom-made, but it was so severely different from other hip-hop music, it was confusing, but the change was good, Dream thought.

They almost immediately slid into a zigzaggy formation, well Innit and Minecraft did. The Blood God and Soot stayed put at the end of the line. The two who had moved their arms in a way to make them look like waves, receding and approaching from ashore.

They did that for a moment before sliding their hands behind their head and sliding them forward to the front and down the side of their necks at a fast pace. At the next guitar noise, they set their right foot over to their left side before sliding both their feet back and forth. The two in the back stayed put all the while.

Their hands came back to their middle and slid back and forth there while their legs lifted, one at a time.

It was probably the least sensual dance Dream had ever seen performed that wasn’t sad (hip-hop wise), and it was great. Sleepy Bois Inc. really knew how to captivate their audience without sexualizing anything. A good change. Then again, when Dream was dancing to something that had a more sexual feel to it, he didn’t think too hard about it, it was dancing to him. His own enjoyment and it made him feel good all over.

SBI just seemed to be enjoying themselves.

He could barely see the two in the back, but Innit and Minecraft looked so happy with what they were doing, it made Dream feel happy too. The dance was happy, and everything radiated happy vibes. The cheery yellow sun painted onto one of the walls made it that bit brighter.

They turned to their sides and slid their left hand against their left shoulder, doing the same with their right. Their feet were constantly moving.

There was a pause in the dancing and the two in front slid closer together in the middle, allowing Soot and the Blood God to slide from the back to either side. Soot was on Innit’s side, and the Blood God was on Minecraft’s side. The two in the middle did a little spin thing while the others got situated in their spots. When everyone was in the correct spots and facing the same way, things started up again.

Each of them put up their index fingers and slid their right foot out before bringing it all back in towards their bodies. Dream thought he could see Innit using his middle fingers instead though, Soot might’ve been as well. They all brought their hands into fists before dragging their right legs back out in a hopping spin on their left.

Bringing their hands back towards their body and up above their heads before flicking their hips out twice to the beat. Then their hands slowly fell from the sky. The Blood God and Soot did a twisting motion and snappy thing with their hands while Innit and Minecraft spun again.

Turning to their left with their heads tilted forward, they did the little wavey thing again. Once that finished they flicked their hands out and did the snappy thing. No snapping noises were actually made, so either they weren’t snapping properly or it was on purpose. They lifted and set down their legs one at a time, in tune with the snapping and beat. They seemed to be doing a lot of stuff with their lower body even though Dream’s eyes were mainly focused on the upper body. It was never bland.

Their hands pushed off from their body in slow waves of motion, each leg twisting individually with each movement. They did the same thing again but pushed above their heads this time.

As the movement continued for Soot and the Blood God, they scooted inward towards the center while Minecraft and Innnit went back to where the other two had been earlier. Now, they were in a line again, just in a different order. 

Their wrists flicked out before one hand reached forward as if they were grabbing at something and bringing it closer. Their elbows pushed against the air before their arms lifted and pushed against the air above them. The hands were brought to their lower body while their legs did a little jumping about before returning to the original movement, reaching forward.

Arms circled around them before being pulled up above their heads and their wrists were flicked to the side. Their right leg kicked up against their shins lightly as this happened. Once that part was finished, Innit and Minecraft moved to the very original placement of the Blood God and Soot, in a line standing up at the back.

A different section of the music kicked up with more of a guitar and string-based sound than the previous part. Soot and the Blood God changed to face each other, raising their hands up. Most of this part was focused around their feet. The opposite of the rest of the dance. Each foot went forward, the opposite of what the other did. This happened three times before it stopped on one foot for a bit as they spun. The stomping down foot then turned into the stability and the other continued to step as they spun.

Soot’s hand took hold of the Blood God’s shoulder as both of their spins came to an end. The Blood God’s right hand moved to Soot’s shoulder as his other took residence on his own waist. Soot’s right hand took place on the Blood God’s waist and the other went on his own. They did a back and forth motion as one side of their bodies moved forward, the other moved back.

Once this ended, the Blood God turned around so that Soot was now facing his back. Soot’s hand flew outwards towards the crowd before returning close to the Blood God’s hip, where his hand was stationed a bit away. Both hands went in and out there while his right leg twisted and turned along. Finally, both turned to face the audience, their hands pulling down roughly and smoothly at the same time. Then they returned to their upper body with their elbows pointed out before sliding quickly in opposite directions. Then, just as quickly their hands moved from there to above their heads before rolling downward. Their shoulders then bumped in and out with their outmost elbow.

Carefully sliding smoothly around each other, so that the Blood God was in front and Soot was behind him standing put now, he did a little arm roll before bringing his hands to a stop outstretched from his body. His body continued the roll. He then brought his whole body down onto his knee and reached behind him for Soot’s hand. This motion brought them both into a turn and the Blood God up from the ground. How it was so smooth could only be revealed through intense practice and precision.

Slowly, their hands slid back along with the Blood God’s body while Soot slid forward. The song faded out. That was it. That was the end.

It was so simple looking, Dream knew it wasn’t. That was what dance was, making something difficult, and putting it out into the world looking easier than it was. That was called practice, and practice, and practice. And beauty and grace, and all those other things that existed coherently in the dancing world. Dream loved it all.

The two released each other’s hands and smiled brightly at each other, teeth showing. The crowd cheered as the four raised their hands to wave at everyone before Minecraft made his way to the center while the other three went over to the laptop. Innit stood behind it while the Blood God manned it with Soot squatting down next to him.

“Hello everyone! Thank you all for coming. That was the main crap, but we’ll be hanging around doing crap a little longer if you wanna stick around. It’s been super pog today, so thank you for that! We will see you later,” Minecraft announced with a wave.

Sad music began playing from the laptop. It happened after every performance.

Minecraft ran back to the center, huffing out a breath. “Oh my gosh! Sorry about this, I forgot to mention this earlier, but the donations from today are going to the pet shelter downtown.”

The crowd cheered once again and some began packing up, some dropping some cash into the box against the sidewall. Sleepy Bois Inc. was known for accepting donations but giving them to a charity or organization instead of keeping them for themselves.

Sapnap beside Dream stretched, letting out a groan. Dream turned to him.

“Was-”

He was cut off by Skeppy. “Yeah, I’m gonna go talk to Blades now! Seeya!” he called, running over to Sleepy Bois Inc., who were sitting in a circle in front of the computer. He flopped down next to the Blood God. Was Blades a nickname?

Bad sighed and smiled sickly sweet at the boy, shaking his head at him. Sapnap and Dream rolled their eyes at each other.

“BBH, just go get your man,” Dream complained.

Bad lightly slapped his arm. “He’s not mine! You muffin.”

“Right…” Sapnap assured.

Bad huffed. Dream laughed. Sapnap did too.

“How long do you think SBI will stick around?” Sapnap asked.

“Usually they’ll hang for half an hour before picking up,” Bad answered.

“So when should we talk to them?” Dream questioned.

“Whenever should be fine.”

Dream nodded, he’d wait a bit. Most people who would want to talk to them would do it as soon as possible, and he didn’t know how long this conversation would last.

He was startled out of his thoughts by Soot speaking at the front.

“So, I heard that you guys wanted to see the Blood God do the Chika dance,” he said. Cheers were heard from the audience. Skeppy slid over next to Soot.

“We also want to see him wearing a maid dress, right?” he butted in. From where the Blood God was sitting a groan was heard, manic laughing too.

The Blood God stood up and trudged over to Soot and Skeppy. “No, it won’t happen,” he decided.

“It will! I already have a maid dress for Halloween, or well, not yet. I haven’t gotten it yet, but I will! Then after me, you can wear it!”

“Come on, Blades,” Minecraft complained.

“No!”

A voice from the audience called out, “Blood-chan!”

Soon, a cacophony of voices began shouting it out.

“I won’t do it!”

Innit now walked over. “How about, you don’t have to do it  _ if  _ you do something for me,” he negotiated.

“Come on, don’t give him an escape route,” Soot complained.

“Shut up, what do you want in return?”

“I want you to scream really really high-pitched at the top of your lungs.”

And the Blood God complied.

At the end, Innit was laughing along with Skeppy, Minecraft was holding his ear along with laughing, and Soot was trying not to laugh because he was glaring at the Blood God and Innit. Dream was trying not to lose his hearing, but Sapnap was having the time of his life it looked like. Smiling in glee. What was wrong with that man?

“I-I didn’t even say what-what I wanted you to scream!” Innit laughed breathlessly.

“Alright, we’re good.”

Innit gave up trying to get the Blood God to say what he wanted and let him out of his clutches. Before any more chaos could start (not that Dream didn’t like it), Dream decided that it was the prime time to get in his partnership suggestion.

He pulled on Sapnap’s and Bad’s arm. “Come on! We’ll ask about the shi-stuff now.” Dream caught himself on the curse. Bad gave him the stink eye anyway.

Sapnap let him drag him along (honestly he probably enjoyed it), but Dream let go of him to look more dignified. He still had a reputation to upkeep.

The Blood God caught his eye. “Oh my gosh!” he cried. “Do you need your shoes shining!?”

Dream laughed. “No, but I do have a request.”

The Blood God sobered up at this, tugging on Soot’s sleeve, which in turn got Innit’s attention.

“Alright, we can talk by Blades’ laptop,” Minecraft said.

They all agreed and began making their way to that area. Minecraft and Dream in the lead with Sapnap, Soot, the Blood God, and Innit following close behind. Skeppy and Bad kinda went off on their own. Dream felt his phone tucked into his bag vibrate, it was probably Bad letting him know what he was doing.

Once everyone was situated, the conversation began. They started with greetings and typical good manners.

“So, where’s the other third of your crew?” Soot asked. He’d always been kind of curious about Goerge, Dream took note of.

“Probably sleeping,” Sapnap answered. “As much as I like arson, I figured his parents wouldn’t like it too much if I burned down his house to wake him up.”

“Are we talking about Gogy?” Innit questioned.

“Yes.”

“Ooh… Gogy.”

“Here, why don’t you go talk to Turbo or somethin’,” the Blood God said, speaking to Tommy. “The adults are speakin’.”

“Hey, you know his name is-” Innit was cut off by Minecraft giving him the side-eye. “Right… Fine Mr. Minecraft.” He stood.

“Why do you call him that? Mr. Minecraft?” Dream asked.

“He invented Minecraft,” Soot, Innit, and the Blood God chorused. Mr. Minecraft simply laughed.

Innit walked off, going to lean against the back wall as he put his phone to his ear. Probably to go talk to this “Turbo” guy. Real suspicious sounding.

“So, business,” Soot prompted, leaning down onto his knees.

Dream nodded. “Yes, so I came up with this-”

“ _ We _ came up with this plan,” Sapnap butted in.

“Yes,  _ we  _ came up with this idea,” Dream started. “I was thinking that we could do a competition or something. Maybe a partnership kind of thing?”

“Would this include gettin’ clout?” the Blood God questioned.

“Most definitely, Blood God.” Dream smiled.

“Well,” Mr. Minecraft looked to Soot and the Blood God. Some kind of conversation with eyes. Dream had those all the time with his friends and family. They were each different, and it made sense. “We’ll have to see what Innit boy thinks, but otherwise a partnership sounds fine.”

The five all shook hands. Yes! Score! This was going great!

“Yo! This is gonna be so pog!” Mr. Minecraft exclaimed, reverting away from his seriousness.

“A pleasure doin’ business with ya,” the Blood God said, turning to face Sapnap and Dream. “And please, call me Blades.”

Dream blushed beneath his mask, though he felt like everyone in a fifty-mile radius could feel it. Sapnap at least could tell, but Sapnap knew everything about him.

“And the same to you, Blades.”

Soot had already left the scene, heading over to where Innit was still on the phone. Now, the phone seemed to be on speaker and they were arguing. Blades left to go over to them, and tell them to help clean up. Minecraft stayed, Dream guessed he still had something to say.

He did. “So, I figure I should have a way to contact you, that good? We can DM on Twitter or would you like my number?” he asked.

“DMing is fine. Whatever is fine.”

“Alright, I have a feeling we’re going to have some fun! Have a good day, and I hope you enjoyed the show. Also, if you catch BadBoyHalo later, tell him we totally saw him and Skeppy kissing. Bye!” Minecraft left, leaving Dream stunned.

“I knew it!” Sapnap shouted. Dream wheezed.

“Come on, let’s get outta here!” Dream called, running ahead and snatching up Sapnap’s skateboard.

“Hey! Get back here, and give that back!”

Dream paused, allowing Sapnap to catch up, but the only reason he stopped was because of the fact that he had run into a fan who wanted a signature from the two.

“Hello!” the girl exclaimed, blushing. “Would you mind signing this?” she held out a white baseball cap.

“Sure, I don’t mind. Snapmap is also here if you’d like,” Dream complied.

“Ah, is Gogy here?”

Of course. Everyone loved George. Dream understood the hype. He and Goerge often played up the flirting they did. It really induced a crowd, but it made Sapnap a third-wheel. Something Dream didn’t like. Just let the three be a threesome if you wanted two of them to get together. It would never happen, but don’t leave Sapnap out!

“No, he-he is sleeping.”

“Oh…” the girl sounded so sad… 

“But, Snapmap is here now.” Sapnap had just arrived.

“Hello!” he exclaimed.

“Hi, can you sign this please?” the girl asked once more. He complied, signing above the spot Dream signed in.

“Thank you! I hope you have a good day!” The girl ran off.

Dream passed Sapnap the skateboard, and the two began making their way off. He checked his phone, it was Bad.

**the muffin man**

**Dream!** **  
** **I’m hanging out with Skeppy right now** **  
** **Don’t wait up for me** **  
** **0w0**

**ok** **  
** **see u later** **  
** **we’ll head to my house to hang out** **  
** **…………** **  
** **also mr minecraft wanted me to let you know that he saw u kissing skeppy** **  
** **btw** **  
** **we scored!**

After texting Bad the update, Dream decided to tell Sapnap about the fan before he came over. He felt that Sapnap deserved to know about these things. He thought about making a post about it to Twitter. Maybe it’d help with all the stuff surrounding that.

“Pandas, that fan asked for George, y’know,” Dream began.

Sapnap sighed, “Kinda figured… but hey! I don’t care as much as I used to.”

“I’m not sure becoming desensitized to something like that is good, Sapnap…”

“Don’t worry about me, Dream! I’m more worried about the ice cream I want right now.”

Dream laughed. “Alright, we’ll go get ice cream, but you’re paying. You’re the one who wants it so bad.”

“Fine…” Sapnap groaned.

They began making their way to the ice cream parlor down by Sapnap’s house. It was super close to there, so instead of heading all the way back to Dream’s house, they decided to hang out at Sapnap's instead. It made more sense. The parlor was quite literally a block from his house.

As they waited in line, they decided what they wanted.

“Should we get something for your sisters?” Dream asked.

“Nah, they won’t be home until late. There was a party or somethin’,” Sapnap replied.

Dream groaned. “We haven’t been to a party in forever. We should go to Skeppy’s next one.”

“Sure, I bet we could get Bad to go if it’s at Skeppy’s.”

Dream nodded, before looking back to the menu. He’d get a chocolate brownie sundae, and he was sure Sapnap would get something chocolate or strawberry. George probably would’ve got something vanilla flavored (that basic bi-).

They were soon walking to Sapnap’s house holding the sweet treats they got. Sapnap decided to take a picture of their sweets and send it to George. He deserved it, Sapnap said. He got no response back, but George definitely saw it. Sure, all they wanted was a reaction, and not getting one was saddening, but hey, it was the intent that counts.

By the time they got to Sapnap’s house, Dream had finished half the sundae (it was small), and Sapnap had just about spilled his strawberry ice cream cone onto his skateboard four times. His hand was also a complete mess. Sapnap had also threatened to touch Dream with it. Staying as far away from him as he could, Dream opened the house door for Sapnap after he set down his board.

Once they were in the house, Sapnap immediately set his ice cream cone precariously balancing on the kitchen counter as he went into the bathroom to wash up. Dream stood in the kitchen eating away at his sundae. He thought about accidentally knocking the counter so that the cone would fall, but decided he’d be nice to Sapnap after Monday’s fiasco. Sapnap came back just as Dream was throwing away his sundae container.

“I’m gonna go steal some of your clothes,” Dream said.

He knew Sapnap wouldn’t care too much as long as he didn’t mess them up. They had been friends for ages, and privileges came with that, along with responsibilities but neither of them ever cared much. His clothes were left at Bad’s house, and he needed to change and he was not wearing one of Sapnap’s sisters’ clothes. Dream had learned his lesson after the first time.

“‘Kay,” Sapnap mumbled around licking his ice cream (wow, something he ate like a normal person).

Dream made his way to Sapnap’s room, heading down the stairs to the basement. His room was in the basement along with an entertainment area and bathroom. It was what the friends took over when they hung out there. Which wasn’t very often because Dream and George had some beef with Sapnap’s dad, and even though he wasn’t around a lot, it was still better to avoid coming to his house just in case.

Sapnap’s room had some gray carpet with his LEDs shining in orange. His bed was a mess of unmade chaos. Then again, Dream didn’t make his bed super often either, only when he was bored or had some extra time or whatever. Dream moved over to Sapnap’s dresser and pulled out a pair of white sweatpants and a loose black turtleneck. Black, white, gray, and forms of red, orange, and yellow were basically the only colors Sapnap had. A complete contrast to Dream’s mostly cool-tone pallet, but whatever, he didn’t care as much as his fashion diva of a best friend.

Once changed, Dream went back upstairs. Sapnap was now on the couch flipping through TV shows while licking at the ice cream cone.

“What’re we going to watch?” Dream asked.

“I don’t know. We could watch some chick flick,” Sapnap suggested.

“Sure.”

“Ooh! We could watch  _ Twilight _ !”

Dream wheezed, but Sapnap remained confused. “What? What’s wrong with  _ Twilight _ ? It’s cringe and dumb. It’s perfect.”

“Right… yeah.” Dream took a breath. “That’s why we’re watching it…”

“Yeah. I’ll get popcorn ready once I’m done with my ice cream. I’ll change then too, I think I already spilled some ice cream onto the couch.”

“Alright.” Sapnap started the movie.

Fifteen minutes into the movie, Sapnap had finished his ice cream and paused the movie, getting up and going to the kitchen. First, he washed his hands off before popping some popcorn into the microwave.

Shouting into the living room, Sapnap called, “Dream, I’m going to change! Take the popcorn out when it’s done!” He ran off down the stairs to his room.

Sighing, Dream stood from where he was comfortable on the couch and stretched before moving over to the kitchen sluggishly. He pulled a popcorn bowl from the cabinet next to the pantry and set it on the counter. A minute and a half later, Dream pulled the popcorn out of the microwave, wincing at the burning hot bag before dropping it onto the counter. The bags always got so buttery and oily, Dream didn’t like it a bit, but he waited to wash his hands off. Waiting a second for the popcorn to cool a bit, he then poured the popcorn into the bowl, throwing away the empty bag and washing his hands off once he was done.

He brought the bowl along with some napkins into the living room, setting them down on the coffee table and then going back into the kitchen. Dream went into the fridge and pulled one of Sapnap’s melon drinks out, which was for Sapnap while Dream got himself a Dr. Pepper.

Sapnap returned soon after, wearing a pair of flannel pajama pants and a plain white t-shirt. He jumped onto the couch next to Dream, immediately leaning into him, Dream leaned back. They both really liked cuddling, but George didn’t as much so they did it less when he was around.

“Hey,” Dream said. “I don’t want to get up. Can I just stay over?”

“Uhm… Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, Dad’s not supposed to be coming back tonight or tomorrow, but… there is always that small possibility…” Sapnap replied.

“At this point, I don’t care.”

“Alright, Momma won’t care, so do whatever.”

“Good, good. I’ll message Mom to let her know I’m here.”

He did, and they went to get set up again. Dream handed Sapnap his drink before setting the popcorn bowl on his lap. Then, he started back up the movie.

As the movie finished, they put the next one on in the series. Just after they started the second one, Dream’s phone started ringing.

He picked it up lazily, checking to see who was calling, he groaned and paused the movie.

“It’s George.”

Sapnap nodded and lifted himself off of Dream a bit. Dream accepted the call.

“Hello,” George greeted.

“Hi, George,” Dream responded, he put the phone on speaker and held it out.

“So… what’d I miss?”

“I’m going to hang up.”

“No! Don’t! I really didn’t mean to sleep through it.”

“Right,” Sapnap snickered.

“Is Sapnap with you?”

“I’m at his house.”

“Are you gonna fill me in?”

“We got the partnership. Um… BBH and Skeppy were apparently caught kissing.”

“Finally. Anything else?” Was George not surprised by this information?

“Not really, but go watch the dance when they post it. It’s probably not posted yet. Oh, we should probably message SBI, right Dream?”

“Yeah, we’ll do it later. I want to finish this movie at least.” Dream didn’t want to have to be semi-professional now, he was having a good time with Sapnap and the movie. So, sucks to be you Sleepy Bois Inc.

“Does this mean you’re hanging up?”

“Unless you wanna facetime the movie with us?”

“‘Kay.”

So, they face-timed George as they continued on with the movie. It was a good time.

Dream fell asleep most of the way through the fourth movie, and he didn’t know when George and Sapnap fell asleep. What he did know was that his dream he had that night would remain in his mind forever.

It was simple, similar to other dreams Dream had had before, but it was different.

It had been about dancing. He had been dancing with the Blood God. Ballroom dancing. Blades led and had a cheeky grin on his face as he looked at Dream. Soft music played in the background. Dream could feel himself smile and he knew Blades could see it too. He was maskless and was wearing clothes he would wear to school or around town and to the store.

This scene slowly faded away to darkness. Dream thought this was the end, but inevitably it wasn’t.

The next part of the dream had him dancing once more, but this time it was hip-hop. Finally, a normality, or so he thought. He was doing a dance with Technoblade. This time he was wearing the clothes he would to street dance, mask and all. As the dance came to a close, clapping was heard and the two bowed as the dream faded out as the last one.

The rest of the night was black and Dream was in an empty void of space and time that he didn’t see, nor feel. Good times.

**You dance love, you dance joy, and you dance dreams.** **  
** **\- Gene Kelly**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked the plot progression! It took ages to get to this point. I hope everyone is ready to read this for a while because this is going to LONG. I do hope you enjoy each chapter! I try to put lots of effort into each.  
> This sentence was so weird to write: It was simple, similar to other dreams Dream had had before, but it was different. || But it makes sense, right?
> 
> Self-Promo:  
> Twitter: FakeK or my @ FaketheK  
> I-it'd be pretty kewl if you like SBI enough to read my series... Truths of Technoblade... :P


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the plot thickens! The DreamTeam has to do some planning, but messing around comes first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost forgot I had to post today. Also! My schedule might get a bit funked-up soon because I'm doing track this year and it's starting soon. I'll try my best to keep my schedule up though!  
> Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Dream awoke on Sunday morning before Sapnap. Rising quickly, Dream recalled the dreams of the previous night.

He knew that the dreams had happened early into the night—he didn’t understand how, and he didn’t particularly want to know how. Yet, he still remembered them. Most of the time, his dreams would happen right before he woke up, nightmares usually came earlier if he had them. Was it a nightmare? It didn’t feel like it, so it must have been a dream. A weird one at that.

Setting his head in his hands as it ached, all this thinking so early either made him have a headache, or he literally got concussed yesterday. He hoped for the first—Dream would prefer _not_ to be concussed, thank you very much. Dream stood carefully and made his way into the kitchen. When he entered, he was met with the back of Sapnap’s mom. She turned to him as he walked in.

“Hi, sweetie. Did ya sleep well?” she asked sweetly. Sapnap’s mom was always so nice—unlike her spawn—and she had remnants of a southern accent in her voice. Dream had always thought of her as an aunt. He had one, but Sapnap’s mom was more in his life than she ever was. He called her Auntie.

“Hello…” Dream groaned.

She laughed. “I assume sleepin’ on the couch was rather uncomfortable?”

“Ugh… Nah not so much. I just have a massive headache.”

“Oh, here, have some Advil. I’ll make some biscuits n’ gravy for brunch. It’s getting a bit later now. Why don’t you wake Pandas up before he sleeps through the whole day?” She handed Dream a pill and a glass of water.

Once taking the Advil and drinking some water, he left the kitchen as Auntie began on the biscuit dough and went into the living room.

The dishes had already been picked up, probably courtesy of Auntie, but the mess that was Sapnap was still sprawled lazily across the couch. His mouth hung open and one arm fell off the side of the couch. He held a pillow like a stuffed animal.

Dream started wheezing, trying to calm himself so he could take a picture and send it to Karl. He would enjoy the picture. Dream would also have it as blackmail. While trying to calm himself, he started coughing—hacking really. This woke Sapnap up.

He fell off of the couch in a loud thump and a grunt, some flailing too. This simply made Dream wheeze harder and higher. As Sapnap rubbed at his head, he woozily stood.

“What is wrong with you!?” Sapnap shouted.

From the kitchen, Auntie started yelling at the two. “SAPNAP! I swear if I hear you scream one more time…” she paused as if letting the boy insinuate what she’d do. Scary stuff, that’s what. “You’ll wake your sisters too. And Dream, calm down for once.”

“Yes, Momma!” Sapnap called.

After another coughing fit, Dream answered the general too, “Alright, Auntie.”

She gave a sharp nod to the boys. “Why don’t you two go get ready for the day while I make some breakfast?”

The two nodded and made their way to the basement. Dream took some decent clothes from Sapnap’s room before heading to the bathroom down there. He’d shower before getting dressed, Sapnap would do the same, but in the bathroom upstairs. Dream had chosen a pair of ripped black skinny jeans and one of the few colored articles in Sapnap’s wardrobe, a strangely patterned hoodie. It had every color you would and wouldn’t want together, Karl must’ve gotten it for him. It wasn’t particularly Dream’s style, but he felt like it today.

Soon, he left the shower and got dressed before going into the dining room to sit at the table until Sapnap finished. His two sisters were sitting on the couch while Auntie finished up the cooking. Once she finished the food, she put a cover over it and went to the bathroom door, knocking on it sharply.

“You better hurry up, mister. Don’t take any longer now,” she called through the door.

Seconds later, Sapnap banged open the door of the bathroom. His hair was dripping wet, but he at least had clothes on. He sat at the table as his sisters were called in. Auntie came to the table too, carrying the tray of biscuits and the pot of gravy with. Plates and forks were already on the table, along with a bowl of fruit.

Brunch had been good, but now Sapnap and Dream were heading out to meet up with George. He was complaining about how they “left” him yesterday when it was clearly the other way. What a brat.

The plan was to meet up at the corner they met up at for school then, they’d head off to mess around before going to their normal spot at the park. Possibly meeting up with Ant to talk about a new dance choreography. From there, there was no plan.

Dream was bringing his things with him, well, the backpack of things he’d brought with him to the dance Saturday.

As he and Sapnap walked to the meeting place, he thought. It had been just over a week since seeing Techno do ballet. Maybe he would’ve taken more notice of it had he not been so ramped up in Sleepy Bois Inc.’s performance. That had taken up a lot of his time. But, did he want to think about it? He still didn’t know what he felt towards the situation.

Technoblade and Dream were closer now. Even Dream could tell that much (it wasn’t that hard to tell already, but y’know… he’s kinda dumb when it comes to feelings). He wouldn’t go as far as to call them friends though. Yes, they got along and could commit to a string of banter, but… friends? Dream didn’t think so. He still hoped they would get closer yet.

His goal still remained, and as patient as he was (which wasn’t saying very much) he hoped it would happen as soon as possible. They only had one more year of high school after this after all! Who knew where the two would split off for college.

His thoughts and thinking always seemed to be at the most inopportune times because he could never flesh out what he truly wanted before something came up. It always occurred between two events in an interval and the intervals never seemed to last very long. They had reached their destination now and George was waiting there for them. It was time to stop thinking, Dream guessed.

“Hey, Georgie!” Sapnap called.

“Hello, Snapmap,” George answered.

“Oh come on! I hate that so much! Who even decided to call me that!?” Sapnap complained as George joined on their walk to nowhere. George and Dream laughed, it was fan-made and Sapnap could do nothing to stop it.

“And I hate you, so we’re even.”

“That was just uncalled for…”

They laughed joyously, friends were pretty great!

“So… heading to the park?” Dream asked. “Our spot?”

“Sure, fine with me.”

“Mhm.”

And thus commenced the next interval, but this one would not be filled with thinking and thoughts, this one would be full of moments of stupidity and broken lungs. Don’t worry, it was only from laughing so hard.

They arrived at the spot a few minutes later, sitting down on the grass, Dream took a small speaker from his backpack.

“Ooh!” Sapnap exclaimed as Dream set up the speaker. “We need to get a new song and dance to use, right?”

George nodded, “Yeah, we haven’t in a while. What should we do?”

“I was thinking that we could find a good song and have Ant make some choreography for it,” Dream answered.

“Alright, I want to do Ariana Grande,” Sapnap announced.

“Why??” George questioned, throwing his hand up into the air.

“Why not?”

“Alright, boys, calm down. What Ariana Grande song?” Dream said as he opened Spotify and went to Ariana Grande’s page.

“Um… I don’t know… Maybe- actually I don’t know the name of it, but it goes something like, break up wit’ your girlfriend yuh, yuh.”

“Okay, found it, and it’s called ‘break up with your girlfriend, I’m bored.’”

The song was played through. After the song, the three stayed silent for a moment before saying anything.

“I don’t hate it…” George admitted.

“But..?”

“I think we can find something better.”

“Alright, find something then,” Sapnap pouted. 

“Uh… ‘Falling for U.’”

Dream found the song and gave George a look, but nonetheless, played the song. Sapnap did not wait for a second to shut this idea down once the son ended.

“No! As much as I like the song, I don’t think it’ll work for us.” At least he was sort of polite?

“Fine… Dream, do you have any ideas?”

“No… All I can think about is the SBI collab we’ll be doing soon—possibly.”

The three sighed—almost all at the same time.

Dream then groaned, “Well, what do we do now?”

“I don’t know…” Sapnap muttered.

“We could just not get a new dance?” George suggested.

Both Sapnap and Dream disagreed with this.

“What if we did ‘Geronimo?’” Dream said. “It’s different from what we normally do, but it’s got that beat, though.”

“I want to listen to it.”

Dream found the song and played it through. This time they stayed quiet for quite a bit longer than they had the first time.

“I don’t know…” George muttered. “It could be good… but…”

“Yeah, I agree with George… We can try it? I guess…” Sapnap said. “It’s the best idea we’ve got right now, so I guess we’ll give it a shot.”

“Alright!” Dream cheered. “Finally… we have something.” He stretched, it felt like they'd been working at this for hours. Then he checked his phone, it had only been forty-five minutes. Still, closer to an hour than zero.

He laid back in the grass and looked over to George and Sapnap, who sat in front of him.

“What do we do now? We got that situated, sort of.”

“And I messaged Ant about the choreography. He said he’d get to it when he was finished with… something… Something probably being Red.” Red was Ant’s boyfriend. An interesting fellow Dream would have to admit.

George shuddered. “I can’t imagine what they are doing.”

“Agreed, what do we do though?”

“Um… we could just walk around the park. Maybe we could go to the swings! We haven’t done that in a while.”

“Oh yeah! That’d be fun.”

“You two are literally children.” George stood up alongside Dream and Sapnap anyway.

“You are literally in love with me.”

“No, me!”

Sapnap and Dream started chasing each other down the path that led to the area that the swings were located in. George sighed, but jogged along after them. If they were left alone, they could destroy a planet, George thought.

They never made it to the swings though, they got distracted. Well, actually, Dream got distracted and pulled on Sapnap’s jacket to stop him. George came up behind them and stopped.

“What are you two doing?” George asked. Apparently, he was too loud for Dream, because he shushed him.‘What _are_ we doing?” Sapnap questioned, quieter than George. “We’re hiding behind a bush.”

“George, get down!” Dream hissed. George was still standing behind the two hiding behind the bush. No one was even looking in their direction.

“Fine…” George squatted down by the other two. “Mind explaining?”

“We’re watching…”

“What!?” Sapnap whisper-shouted. “What are we watching?”

“I was getting to that! Techno, his brothers, and Tubbo are in that little clearing in front of us.”

“Okay… but why are we watching them?”

“Scientific purposes?”

“I don’t believe that,” George stated before once again standing. Dream squawked indignantly, but Sapnap followed George’s lead.

The two marched out onto the path that led to where the brothers and Tubbo sat. Dream scrambled after them, almost tripping over his feet on the way. He looked down at his dragging feet as he slowly followed along after Sapnap and George like a baby duck trailing its mama.

The group of boys they were headed to caught sight of them when they were roughly fifteen feet away. Tubbo seemed to notice first. He relayed this information to Tommy, who was speaking at a boisterous volume—something about getting all the women—who then announced this to everyone in a mile radius. Dream winced, was this going well—probably not—yet he still got dragged along by his arm.

Three more heads turned in their direction. Wilbur, Techno, and Philza. Nothing was said between the two groups before the three were within six feet of them. Once that had happened, Phil started the series of greetings.

“Hello!” he said politely. “Nice to see you again, Dream. And… I don’t think I know you two very well, but I’m certain we’ve heard things about you.” He shot a look at Tommy and Wilbur. “You’re Sapnap and George, correct?”

“Yeah, nice to meet you, man,” Sapnap answered. “Who’re you?”

Phil laughed. “Phil.”

“Do you mind if we join you guys?” George asked. Dream was basically hiding between the two. He felt really awkward being in the presence of the friends and family of his… rival… friend?

“We don’t mind.”

“We do!” Tommy called. Previously, he and Tubbo had been whispering loudly, speaking of dastardly plans of destruction and robbery.

Phil sighed, “But, the polite thing to do is to allow them to sit.”

“But, we’re not polite,” Wilbur added.

Techno looked up from his laptop that he had sitting on his lap, probably working on homework or something along those lines. He closed it. “Yeah, why would we want the ‘omeless man and his two squatted friends hanging around us? They are probably disease-ridden…” he commented.

“Hey! I’m not homeless!” Dream exclaimed, finally, after that comment, deciding that he wanted to be a presence in this current stream of conversation that would be hard to leave.

“I’m not so sure… You knew that I was talkin’ about you when I said ‘omeless, so that could only make me assume…” Technoblade allowed everyone else to figure out the direction this was heading.

Dream harrumphed and crossed his arms across his chest. Sapnap snickered beside him. He didn’t have enough time to protest any further because Tommy decided that he had more important things to say.

“Oi, Sapnap! You were the one to kill Henry, weren’t you!?” Tommy shouted. Henry was a snail Tubbo and Tommy had found crawling across the sidewalk outside. They had brought it into class and by the end of it, he was gone. Sapnap was in that class and was known for doing that kind of thing. Harassing children emotionally.

Sapnap went over to Tommy and Tubbo and sat across from them, turned away from the rest of the group to talk things out. George left him to instead go over to Wilbur and start mocking him, so Dream was left with the only logical decision, go over to where Techno was and begin arguing about how he wasn’t homeless.

Dream plopped his butt down in front of Techno. He looked up from the piece of grass he had wrapped around his finger. As soon as he had Techno’s attention, Dream began his rant.

“I’m not homeless! I’ve got the biggest house!” Dream said proudly. He knew he didn’t, but it was fun to argue and lie sometimes. Unless it were to his mother, that would automatically be sniffed out, and he’d be in huge trouble.

“Right… this huge house that no one has seen before?” Technoblade countered.

“ _You’ve_ never seen it, others have.”

“My point still stands. I have never seen your supposed house, so it doesn’t exist.”

“That’s not how this works!”

Techno laughed. A deep rumbling sound deep in his chest. It was gorgeous, and it left Dream with his mouth hanging open. He had never heard such a wondrous sound. He’d heard tinkling laughs that sounded like glasses clinking, and laughs that sounded like someone was dying (he was _not_ talking about his own, thank you very much). But this? This was new territory that had never been explored by him. It was mystical.

“...Hey..? Dream?” Techno’s hand was waved in front of his eyes. He blinked, coming out of his ruminations.

“Hmm?”

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah… I’m fine. Why would you ask?”

“No reason… You kinda spaced out there for a second.”

“Sorry.” A pause. He needed a topic. He glanced at Techno’s laptop, still sitting on his lap. “What were you working on?” He gestured to the closed device.

“Oh… Just an idea I had. Nothing too big…”

It wasn’t much, but Dream doubted he’d get much more out of Techno about it. He would take what he could get. A single word was enough for him.

“Ooh, sounds cool… Would you mind teaching me about ballet?”

“Oh…”

“You don’t have to!” Dream rushed out.

“No, no, it’s fine. I just didn’t expect you to be interested. So… what do you want to know?”

“Um… Tell me about the steps you do. There are positions, right?”

Techno nodded quickly. “Yeah, there are arm and foot positions. Um… give me a second…” He opened his laptop, typing something or another in before flashing the screen to Dream.

Techno scooted so they sat side by side instead of across from each other. He left a small gap in between their legs, they were not touching. Dream didn’t know whether he wanted this to be different or he was infected with a disease.

“Right, so this position,” he pointed at one of the diagram pictures on the screen, “is first position. There is five positions total.” Well, that explained the five pictures. “In first position, you have your heels kept together, and your feet turned out. You have to keep it really straight.

“Second position requires you to separate your feet by a foot—yes, exactly one foot—then they are also turned out. Third has your feet turned out again, and your heels would also be together, but one is in front of the other. In fourth position, your feet are—once again—separated by a foot, turned out with one foot in front of the other. Parallel to each other- Y’know what? It might just be easier to show you what I mean.”

Dream leaned over Techno’s shoulder to get a better look at the screen without the glare of the sun beating down on it. The picture with a little four beneath it was a drawn picture of a ballet dancer’s feet and legs. Their feet were—as Techno said—placed parallel to each other, one in front of the other. The space between the feet would form a square if two lines were drawn.

This kind of thing continued for Dream and Technoblade. Dream didn’t know how long it lasted, but it seemed like both forever and a second. Total opposites, but he wanted more. Being friends with Techno was pretty great! The day didn’t last forever though, and around 1:00 PM, Dream was pulled away from being educated about ballet by George

“Dreamie poo, we’ve gotta eat lunch. It’s already past time. Come on, let’s go,” George said, pulling Dream up by the arm.

“Alright…” Dream groaned. “Bye Techno, I’ll see you tomorrow!”

As Dream left the area, choruses of shouts and goodbyes were heard. He turned his head to watch the group.

Tubbo was waving his hand furiously, giving his arm whiplash. Tommy was shouting some profane words at Sapnap that were distributed back equally, and some even landed their way onto Techno, who shouted once at Sapnap before anything directed at him stopped. Wilbur was shouting at Dream, who then started spewing insults right back as he got dragged back by George. George was pulling along both him and Sapnap. Like an owner and two dogs, Dream thought. Phil was simply sitting there with his head in his hands as Techno patted his back comfortingly.

What _had_ Phil done to deserve this?

Once they were far enough away to the point where neither group could hear each other anymore, Sapnap and George turned their heads to look creepily at Dream, who was walking behind them. Their smiles were creepy, wide, and George’s especially was unlike one he’d ever seen before, from them at least. George never smiled like that, never creepily, Sapnap was more prone to that type of thing. It was more of a smirk than a smile, but with teeth. It was oddly scary for the two to do this, but it was worse because they had turned at almost the same time. Had they planned this?

“Hey… Didja need something?” Dream questioned wearily.

“Oh, y’know… it’s nothing really…” George started slowly.

“...Except for how close you and Techno were today!” Sapnap finished.

Dream let out a strained laugh. “Yeah, we’re closer now… Is that a problem? And yeah, we were sitting pretty close, he was showing me something. Explaining ballet positions…”

“Right… That is all _completely_ true, and there isn’t _anything_ else…” 

“It is!”

“Dream, I’ll be straight with you right now. We think you like Techno.”

“Yeah I like him, we’re friends. That’s kinda obvious, you dummy.”

“No, romantically!”

Dream’s eyes widened impossibly large. That couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t, so he ignored it.

“Right, as if. What do you guys want for lunch? We could head to Bad’s?” Dream suggested, avoiding the topic to the best of his ability.

Both boys sighed and turned ahead again. “Sure… that works.”

Dream didn’t understand their sadness—it wasn’t sadness, but there was no other word to describe it. Disappointment maybe?

He had never thought of what he felt toward Techno being romantic. He’d always thought that he just wanted to be friends, but maybe his friends were right. They did tend to do that sometimes—not often, but sometimes. He’d consult Drista, she’s the one who helped him with it last time. She might know this time too.

When they got to Bad’s house, they immediately barged in to tease Bad over what happened the previous day. George pretended like he was there, so then they tore into his heart too. Soon they had to stop to eat because Sapnap’s stomach made a weird noise that sounded oddly like a Stuka Scream. (No PTSD was caused.) So they went downstairs and began making sandwiches.

They also made sandwiches for Bad’s mom and sister. They had yet to eat, so the boys decided to do it for them. They’re just nice like that, and it was Bad’s idea. Once the sandwiches were passed out, the boys moved to their typical place at the counter. A bag of chips and a bowl of fruit were both pushed around as well. As they ate, and as Dream was halfway through his sandwich and mid-bite, his phone dinged. Lazily, he opened it up to see it was a Twitter DM from SBI.

Dream hurried his chewing as quick as possible—choking in the process—gaining the attention of his friends. He gulped down some water before speaking.

“Just got a DM from the Sleepy Bois,” he said breathlessly.

“Ooh!” Sapnap cheered. “Open it!”

“Alright, alright! I was going to.”

His friends leaned around him, looking down at the small screen he was holding. Carefully, as though handling a kitten, Dream opened the DM.

**Sleepy Bois Inc.**

**Hello DreamTeam!** **  
****This is Minecraft from SBI** **  
****I figured we could plan a time to meet up**

 **alright** **  
****when would u like to?**

 **Kinda last min. but if today works that will work best for us** **  
****if u dont we will find u and send very many rabid dogs after u**

**Is this the same person???**

**no** **  
****this is your mother** **  
****Figure it out yourself you bi** **  
****I stopped him.**

**why is the person typing changing so much**

**Ok** **  
****I have the phone back now** **  
****Sorry m8** **  
****That was Innit. Blades got the phone back** **  
****Srsly though** **  
****Will today work?**

 **yeah** **  
****none of us are busy** **  
****do u care if we bring Bad along?**

 **Nah** **  
****What time is good?**

 **would sometime between 5-6 work?** **  
****you can choose where to meet**

 **Yeah** **  
****Thats good. Maybe 5:20 ish?** **  
****There’s a cafe we can go to. I’ll send you the location**

 **alright** **  
****we’ll see you later**

 **:)** **  
****D: <** **  
****-ToInnit**

**:P**

The conversation seemed to go well, and they officially had a time and place to meet up. A minute or two later, the DreamTeam received a location from the Sleepy Bois. It was a cafe near the library apparently—according to Bad. Dream had been to the library, but it was a while ago and only once or twice. As he’s said earlier, he didn’t read much. Besides the strange switch of people typing on the other end, things went fairly normal and natural.

“Alright, boys! We’ve just scored ourselves a date with destiny!” Dream cheered. He and Sapnap gave everyone double high-fives.

“5:20, right?” Bad asked.

“Yeah, that leaves plenty of time to get ready and for us to explain what happened today,” George answered.

“Oh, what happened today?”

George and Sapnap shared evil looks with each other before sending a quick glance to Dream. Of course, they were going to tell Bad their theory. Their theory was _totally_ not true.

“Well…” Sapnap began, starting with the part where Dream decided to stalk Techno and his friends.

_Wow Sapnap, really giving me that bad of a wrap… Totally uncool… but true._

By the time Sapnap finished telling the story, it was roughly 2:30 PM. A bit after, but sure. Sapnap tended to stretch out the stories he told with “ands” and stuttering, a lot of the time, making anything he ever told way longer than it ever needed to be or was. No one minded though, that was Sapnap, and Sapnap was pretty cool. They would never admit that though. You never admit one of your friends is cool. That just doesn’t follow protocol.

“So, Dream, you have a crush?” Bad asked at the end, turning to Dream.

Dream shouted, “NO!” at the same time George and Sapnap shouted, “YES!”

“I don’t! These two just like assuming every little thing, and lying.”

“ _You_ like lying!”

“I do not!”

“Boys, calm down!” Bad’s mother called from her bedroom. She had decided to read for a bit after Bad’s sister was put down for a nap after lunch.

“Yes, ma’am…” the three muttered, just loud enough that she could hear.

“That’s what I like to hear.”

Now, the three boys who were arguing continued, but much quieter. Bad stopped them finally and pulled them upstairs and into the studio.

“It’s not time for you to get ready yet, but we do need to be quieter,” Bad reprimanded.

The trio nodded before heading off into the corner of the room to huddle up and watch dumb videos on their phones. Sapnap and Dream also got George to watch the performance they saw yesterday on Twitter. It had been posted earlier that day, and George hadn’t watched it yet.

“Wow…” George gasped quietly as the video went on. “Sometimes I forget that all the Sleepy Bois know how to dance and do it well. It’s crazy to think that we’re going to work with them. It’ll be fun, I bet!”

“You would think so wouldn't you…” Sapnap muttered. George shot him a look, he backed off.

It had been announced by Bad that it was time to get ready to leave halfway through a giggling fit from some dumb and definitely inappropriate video. Bad gave them the stink eye as he told them. Surely muttering a ‘language’ in the announcement somewhere because someone was definitely using “strong language.”

They had decided to get dressed and then go downstairs for a small snack, probably a sweet or treat that Bad’s mom made the previous day.

Bad pulled a tray of vegetables and dip out of the fridge once they came downstairs clad in their usual street clothes. They all started to complain. They thought they were getting sweets!

“Come on, Badddd! No one likes vegetables, and we thought we were getting sweets or something!” Sapnap whined.

“Yeah! That’s what you said early!” George added.

“I’ve changed my mind. You’ll get fat if you eat many sweets!” Bad exclaimed.

Groans, grumbles, and moans of how they didn’t care, and that they wouldn't because they danced chorused through the kitchen.

“Fine, get fat! See if I care!”

“Okay,” Dream said, immediately stopping the whining.

“Nooooo! That wasn’t the answer I wanted!”

“Fine, Bad. We’ll eat the veggies,” George finally caved.

And Sapnap and Dream followed along with them, they were hungry, and yes, they were probably going to eat at the cafe but food is food. Unless it’s not. Then it’s not food, but food is definitely food, even if it’s green and tastes like healthiness.

They finished what they deemed enough of the detested greens with minimal complaining. Then, Dream, Sapnap, and George ran back upstairs to get the rest of their things. Dream put on his mask, George his glasses, and Sapnap pulled on his socks. Next, they went back downstairs and put on their shoes before leaving the house.

“Have we got everything?” Bad questioned as they stood on the porch, waiting for Sapnap to get his skateboard ready.

“Think so. Dream has his bag, I have my things, and Sapnap has his as well,” George replied.

“Alright, let’s go! We don’t need the GPS, I’ve been to this cafe a couple of times.”

And then, they began to make their way towards the mysterious cafe, following after Bad. The walk was surprisingly peaceful for the group of friends, typically, it’d be filled with threats and attacking each other, both physically and mentally. Sapnap even only fell off his skateboard once. It was impressive.

Fall was truly beginning to set in. The trees were colors of ochre and umber, the rustling of leaves and branches were met with a light breeze that made Dream glad for his jacket, his mask protected his nose from running. The sky had already begun to shift in color, now it was a slightly darker shade of cerulean than it had been just an hour before. Just the fall way.

Dream had always preferred spring and summer. Mainly summer, spring was too wet for him, but jumping in puddles of standing water was fun, especially when done with friends and he could splash them.

Kids laughing were heard through the neighborhoods they went through. He heard the creak of a swing in a park they passed, and then, a loud thump. A kid had jumped off just as he would’ve. Dream smiled, that kid was making the right choices. But apparently, the adult with the kid didn’t agree because seconds later, Dream heard someone scolding the child as they laughed. That adult totally did the same when they were a kid. Dream didn’t understand why grownups did those kinds of things. One moment, they’d be doing the same thing as the kind, but the next, they’d be scolding the kid for the thing they did seconds before. Cursing is an example of this. He just didn’t understand.

They arrived at the small cafe after a few minutes. Maybe seven? The cafe was small and had an industrial feel mixed with pastel. It was weird, but it looked nice. Dream could see the Sleepy Bois sitting inside from the window. As they walked in, the Sleepy Bois turned their heads to the door, except for Blades, he was looking at something on a laptop.

Minecraft waved his hand, beckoning them over.

“Hi,” he greeted, smiling brightly. “You can pull a chair over or even a table. No one cares.” He proved this by shouting, “Isn’t that right, boys?” This was targeted at the counter, two heads popped from around the side of a wall, possibly leading to a break room.

A guy Dream somewhat recognized, but he looked like some random guy from Walmart too, popped his head around the corner. Next to him, a familiar face. Purpled.

“Yes, Mr. Minecraft!” they chorused. Purpled much more muted and less enthusiastic sounding.

Dream pretended not to recognize him. That had the potential to blow his cover.

“That’s Jack Manifold and Purpled,” Soot said.

This information was taken in as Sapnap and pulled another table over to the Sleepy Bois’, Dream and George brought the chairs. Once they were all settled, Jack came up to them.

“What would you all like?” he asked.

The Sleepy Bois began first, while the DreamTeam looked at the menu. Bad didn’t, but he’d been there before evidently, he already knew what the cafe had.

“One straight black, a Coke, two hot chocolates—don’t forget to put extra marshmallows in one, and the littlest amount of sugar in the other—and a chai tea latte—extra cinnamon,” Blades immediately said without looking up from his laptop.

Dream, Sapnap, and George glanced at each other before sliding their eyes to Blades. Had he memorized the orders of every Sleepy Bois Inc. member? No one else seemed fazed by this.

“Anything to eat?”

“Biscuits,” Innit responded. “Maybe fifteen?”

Jack sighed, “Alright… and for you boys?”

Bad answered first, “Just a hot chocolate and cranberry and orange muffin for me.”

Then went Sapnap, Dream, and George.

“Mochaccino, extra whipped cream, and chocolate syrup. I expect sprinkles,” Sapnap basically demanded. “Also chocolate muffin.”

“Wow, Snapmap, way to be demanding,” George mentioned.

“Shut up.”

“I’d like a raspberry Italian soda and a banana pudding,” Dream requested.

Next George went. “Apples. Apples and apple juice.”

Jack gave him a strange look, but so did the Sleepy Bois. “Okay… um… I will get right on it.” Jack left and went back behind the counter.

He frantically spoke to Purpled before looking around manically. Purpled got started on the drinks.

“Gogy, you didn’t have to say that…” Dream said.

“I wanted apples and apple juice. I’m sure they have some!”

“Whatever…”

Silence filled the air between the two groups, the only sound was Blades tapping away at the keys of his keyboard. Soot leaned over to look at the screen, muttering something to Blades before retracting himself from Blades’ space. Blades, after having never looked up from his laptop, finally looked up.

“Hello, DreamTeam, and Bad,” he greeted.

“We kinda did this a while ago, Blades,” Innit mentioned.

“Heh?”

Soot laughed, “I told you so! Would you mind presenting what you’ve been working on to the group?”

Blades sighed, but turned his laptop around to face everyone else, Sapnap and George, who were the furthest away, scooted closer. He leaned over the laptop, pushing his hair away so it wouldn’t fall in front of the screen.

On the screen, was what looked to be a music program of sorts. Something to create music at least.

“Alright, so this is what Soot and I’ve been workin’ on. I’ll send you guys the audio in a bit, but I was thinkin’ it could be used as the music for our partnership—thing,” he explained. For some reason, Blades’ speech patterns and voice sounded familiar to Dream, but he just couldn’t pinpoint it.

Soot took over now. “Yeah, so we obviously don’t have to use this, but we already had it like halfway done. The only problem would be us finishing it and getting it sent for choreography… That always takes a long time, and then practice..! Okay, _maybe_ this isn’t such a good idea. Any suggestions?”

Blades turned the laptop back around and shut it, resting his head against the table.

“Soot, do you remember how _long_ we worked on this last night so we had something _decent_ to show off? Only to not use it? Bruh… I lost so much sleep over this…”

Minecraft patted his back lightly. “Don’t worry about it, you can go to bed early tonight.”

Blades lifted his head and stared blankly at Minecraft. “Right, like I’ll do that. Cuz’ I can. _Totally_.”

“HAH! I told you that it’d be better to play some Minecraft with me instead of work! But you didn’t listen, and look where you are now,” Innit exclaimed, laughing at their pain.

“We still wouldn’t have played with you.”

“That-”

“Alright boys… shut up. Serious talk.” A moment of silence before laughter filled the air. Minecraft let out a breath. “Does anyone else have any ideas?”

“Who does your choreography anyway?” George asked.

The Sleepy Bois laughed hesitantly and awkwardly.

“That is… top secret information…” Soot said.

“Right…” Sapnap muttered. He was totally gonna figure out an absolutely illegal way to get a hold of that information. 

As they all thought about what to do, Jack and Purpled arrived with the food. There was quite a lot so they had to make two trips, even with both of them. It was eight people after all. Only Jack came back in the second round, there appeared to be no need for Purpled’s assistance with this load.

The drinks and snacks were sorted out, and they all began to chow down—or drink, Dream supposed. They had forgotten about the current stream of conversation in favor of taking that strangely satisfying first bite. You understand the importance of the first bite.

“Alright,” Innit said around a large bite of biscuit. “I say we do ‘WAP.’”

“Language,” Bad automatically answered.

Everyone seemed to ignore him. Soot nodded quickly and smiled widely. “Yeah! You never let us do it, Blades.”

Blades immediately began shaking his head. “For the last time, no. We need to be monetized!”

“Come on, Blades. It’ll be fun!” Minecraft added. He was joining in too?

“Not you too..!”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Sapnap commented.

Blades groaned, muttering to himself the same word. “No…”

“Fine… For Blades sanity, I supposed not,” Dream said, ending the begging.

“Thank goodness…” Bad mumbled.

“Thank you…” Blades murmured, sighing. “Any _other_ ideas?”

“We have that stock of backups?” Minecraft suggested. “Choreography has already been made, we’d just need to practice it. Still don’t know why we didn’t do half of those.”

“Soot lost a few of the choreography plans and didn’t tell anyone. I only found out through looking through the files during spring cleaning that Mum and Dad made us do,” Innit exposed.

“Hey, you said you wouldn’t tell!”

“Have you ever heard of crossing your fingers?”

Soot huffed, “We still can’t use them. I am not willing to tell them we lost the choreography.

“You mean ‘I.’ _You’re_ not willing to tell them _you_ lost them.”

“Have you no sympathy?”

Blades simply sipped at his hot chocolate, loudly.

It was rather surprising really, Dream had expected him to get the straight black, but Blades ended up taking the hot chocolate with the extra marshmallows. He hadn’t expected him to like something like that. He’d even expected the less-sweetened cocoa than the marshmallow one. That was just stereotyping though. Soot had taken the other hot chocolate, mentioning something about not being able to taste it very well, so the texture mattered to him, the taste, less so. Minecraft, unsurprisingly to Dream, took the straight black. He didn’t understand why he thought Blades would’ve taken it when Minecraft was obviously the most similar to a tired dad in the group. Innit took the Coca-Cola, and then there was the chai tea latte. Dream didn’t understand why they got an extra, but it was put into a to-go-cup, and set next to Blades.

_Would he really want another drink later? How much does he pee? Is that healthy?_

These were all questions that swam through Dream’s pink-muddled mind. He wasn’t sure they were all with good intent.

“Um… Working on topic, anybody?” George said.

“Don’t believe in that religion.” Innit and Sapnap both managed to say this or something similar at the same time. The two then managed to flip each other off at the same time too. Then, also managing to flip up their other middle finger at the same time as well. This was eventually stopped by Bad shouting language.

“I was thinking we could do something like a partner dance thing, but it trades off,” Soot suggested. “Something sort of similar to what we did yesterday with the switching, but since there are more of us, it’d be more partner-y.”

“Alright, alright. That’s a start,” Dream said. “We need a song though.”

Blades immediately opened his laptop, and Soot, George, Innit, and Dream all got onto their phones, while Minecraft leaned over to look at Blades’ laptop screen. Bad brought out his own laptop that had been stored away in his backpack.

It was silent for the next few minutes. Only the sound of tapping and sips of drinks and bites of food and the occasional ring of the bell on the door from other customers walking in were left.

Sapnap was, as usual, the first to interrupt the silence. “Found somethin’,” he announced. Dream nodded him on. “‘Finesse’ by Bruno Mars, featuring Cardi B.”

They gave the quick song, but Minecraft stopped it halfway through. “I’ll be honest, boys. We don’t usually do profane stuff when we use songs we don’t make. Mainly for monetization, but if we could find something without, that’d be great,” Minecraft admitted. “Please ignore the fact that we do curse and yell profanities very loudly-” He shot a look at Soot and Innit. “-and that Blades is the only one who doesn’t.”

The group nodded, Bad sighed. As much as he didn’t like others cursing, he was sort of okay with it if it was going to be a song they were dancing to. Dream supposed that was a good thing, seeing as so much of today’s music had those types of lyrics.

“Don’t worry about finding a long song,” Blades said before everyone got absorbed into their findings. “We can edit it to elongate it.” Once again, nods moved through the group before everyone returned to their work.

The next one was Soot.

“‘Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels’?” he questioned. “Todrick Hall?”

“Y’know, if we do that one. We also have to do another,” Minecraft said. He turned to the DreamTeam. “We already have choreography for that one, and it’s easy enough to add onto. So, what do we think? Take a vote?”

“Sure,” George agreed.

“Alright, start voting. Who says yes, who says no?”

Bad didn’t vote because he wouldn’t be the one dancing, he simply came along for the moral support and since they were friends. Also kind of manned the DreamTeam’s stuff a bit. Soot, Sapnap, George, and Dream all voted yes. Blades and Innit said no, and Minecraft opted to not vote, staying in the middle. He wouldn’t care either way.

“Remember, Innit won’t be doing this one with us,” Minecraft said afterward. No one questioned why, it wasn’t their place to. If Innit didn’t want to then he didn’t have to.

“Why did you vote no?” Dream asked Blades after it had been decided that they’d do it.

“More work,” Blades answered simply. “I’m fine with doing it, but it’s just more work.”

Dream nodded and went back to scouring his phone for song ideas.

He was mindlessly scrolling, crossing off things in his head when he found a great idea. Slamming his phone down onto the table, he had everyone looking at him. Beneath his mask, he knew he was smiling.

“So… what if we did ‘Runaway Baby?’” Dream said. “Bruno Mars.”

Blades’ eyes seemed to light up. Dream took this time to admire them. In a matter of seconds, he took in as many details as physically possible. His eyes usually seemed rather dull and low-cast, but when he opened them further or was smiling, they seemed to light up and change colors. Typically, Dream thought of his eyes as a deep red color, closer to brown than red—russet. When they showed emotion, they became so much redder and richer, lightening to a cherry kind of color. They were so pretty. Actually, they were more of a rich carmine color. Why did one man deserve such beauty?

“Bro..! That’d be so much fun!” Blades exclaimed, probably the loudest he’d been all day. George and Sapnap nodded along.

“Alright,” Minecraft started before turning to Soot and Innit. “How do you two feel about it?”

“The only thing bad about it is that he”—Innit pointed at Dream—“chose it,” Innit answered. Soot just nodded in agreement.

“I’m offended…”

“You probably deserve it,” Sapnap replied.

“That’s probably true.”

“So, the plan is ‘Runaway Baby’ by Bruno Mars and ‘’Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels’ by Todrick Hall?” Bad questions to solidify the plan.

“Yep!” Soot exclaimed.

Bad typed something into his laptop.

“Alright, I think it’s time we leave now, DreamTeam.”

Choruses of goodbyes and teasing rose throughout the group. Sapnap thrust his hand into Innit’s hair and pushed it down, turning it all the while—giving him a noogie.

“I’ll see you later!”

Innit grumbled about as he tried to bite Sapnap’s arm to get him off of him. Blades held him back by the back of his shirt while doing this, he had a conversation with Bad and Dream.

“So, we’ll talk about when to meet up for practice and stuff over DMs?” Dream asked.

“Yeah, that’ll do. If you guys receive any threatening DMs, assume it’s from Innit, but honestly it could be any one of us,” Blades warned.

“Okay… I’ll be sure to do that.” That didn’t even make sense. ‘It was probably Innit but it could be any of them?’ That meant it could be any of them, but Innit was most likely to do it.

They finally managed to get everyone and everything ready to go, getting themselves out the door several minutes after they said they’d leave.

“Today seemed to go pretty well,” Bad said simply on the way back to his house.

“Yeah…” Sapnap sighed, pushing off with his foot to move forward on his skateboard. “Honestly, I did not expect that to go so well. Kinda expected it to end in a massive brawl between you and Blades, Dream. You were very civil, we’re proud of you.”

“Hey!” Dream called, though a smile was underneath his mask and evident in his voice. He didn’t mind.

“It’s going to be interesting, that's for sure,” George admitted. Everyone agreed with him.

“I doubt we’ll have anything to do with them during the week—because of school—we’ll have to wait for the interesting until next weekend. Man, I already can’t wait for the week to end! School is stopping us from doing cool things, again!”

“You just don’t like school.”

“That’s also true.”

Dream’s phone buzzed. It was a text from his mom saying to be home soon, he checked the time. It had been getting late.

“We should hurry up,” he said, relaying the information. “Mom wants me home soon.” Nods and agreements were seen and heard through the group.

The wind rustled through the trees, knocking leaves onto the path and road. Even in the dark, fall was pretty. It was hard to see—that night there was only a sliver of moon, it was a day after the new moon—but what he could was nice. The breeze seems to go right through his jacket though, either that or find just the right spot to enter and make him cold.

Dream realized now that autumn would now remind him of the Sleepy Bois and Blades. Blades specifically because of the eyes, his eyes didn’t just remind him of cherries, but of red fall leaves. The really nice ones that were an insane color of red. You know the ones. It seemed to fit.

**All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.** **  
****\- Walt Disney**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like reading comments, so feel free to leave one! Make sure to let me know if there were any typos.
> 
> Self-Promo:  
> Twitter: FakeK or my @ FaketheK  
> Also have some platonic SBI stuff if you like that stuff!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno POV!  
> He's worried, but there are even more things to worry about. Like Dream, and the partnership, and his life... etc. Techno needs a distraction, and other thoughts—that are probably just as bad—seem like a good option.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're not following me on Twitter then you don't know about this, but today there's plot (AND I CAN'T WATCH IT), and I'm having a friend over at the time it happens. Not to mention that I had to post this. Listen, I am very upset because the ONE TIME I want to have a good time with my IRL friend is the day that cc!Technoblade decides to stream lore. >:(

Techno had worried and worried over the outcome of the DreamTeam and Sleepy Bois Inc.’s “team-up” of sorts, but it had gone well. Aside from the constant vibrating of his Twitter notifications. Sleepytwt was very excited that they got four for four Sleepy Bois yesterday. They could not  _ stop  _ talking about it. It made him happy that his fans were so great and responsive and stuff, but please, damage the future with this kind of blow-up. Along with the threats randomly thrown across the tables, everyone got along pretty well. Then again, they had been moderated by Bad and Phil, but otherwise no one.

They officially decided on the pair of songs they’d do for it and he thought they’d be pretty fun. “Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels” and “Runaway Baby” were good choices, different but good (“Runaway Baby” was better, but don’t tell Wilbur he said that). He thought it was going to be harder and longer to agree on things, but it really wasn’t. Maybe the DreamTeam and the Sleepy Bois weren’t as different as Techno originally thought… 

They had sent their choices to their parents late last night, expecting to get something back around Friday or Saturday. Only the choreography for “Runaway Baby” was needed, so it would take less time. The day after Sunday was Monday, meaning they couldn’t get as much done as they would have liked, but Wilbur did manage to dig through the files to find the choreography they already had. That was good, less work to be pushed onto Technoblade.

Techno made a list of things that needed to be done by the weekend, and then another list of things that needed to be done before the performance. Then he went to bed, it was around 11:30 PM by then. Average time to go to bed if you asked him.

So, it was now Monday, and school was a thing. So was ballroom dancing, he had practice with Ranboo at 5:15 PM that day. Today, Techno dressed in a black sweater that was sure to get Wilbur all riled up about how he “stole his style” and a pair of jeans rolled to the edge of his hiking boots. It was different from his normal color scheme, but he didn’t care. Sure, he was known for wearing red and gold, but it wasn’t his “designated” colors. Those just didn’t exist. He still had pink hair and red eyes so it wasn’t like he was a completely different person.

Twisting his hair quickly into a braid and tying it off was the final thing on his morning routine of getting ready. He completed this and made sure Phil was getting ready as well, otherwise he’d just sleep through the morning. He was not a morning person, and definitely an old man.

Philza left after they did in the morning, so as Tommy, Techno, and Wilbur got their shoes on and started heading out the door, Phil waved goodbye and went to eat his breakfast.

The three made it to school where Techno and Wilbur split off from Tommy. They had their first class together, but since Tommy was two grades below Techno and three below Wilbur, he shared none of their classes. It was luck that they had managed to have lunch together, along with Tubbo.

Their first class was Calculus, which was not very fun first thing in the morning on a Monday. Techno didn’t know how they had the mental capacity to get good grades in that class. The two took their places in the middle row on the far left, Techno on the outside, and Wilbur on the inside. They had bribed the teacher into allowing them to sit next to each other. Wilbur thought it’d work because that man looked so dead inside during class that he’d agree with anything.

“Did we have homework?” Wilbur asked, seeing a few of the others in the class putting papers in the turn-in basket.

“Uh…” Techno dug through his Calculus work he had yet to empty from his backpack. “Yeah, I have it done here. Just copy it down. You usually end up stealing mine to copy anyway.”

“You knew about that!?” Nonetheless, Wilbur quickly began copying down Techno’s answers onto his own paper.

Wilbur just barely finished before their teacher walked into the classroom as the late bell rang. He swiftly brought both papers to the basket and dropped them in, returning to his seat with limited snickers from their peers. They had seen this happen quite a few times. Techno didn’t understand if the teacher straight-up didn’t care, or didn’t notice. Either way, it worked out really well for Wilbur.

_ Boring. Boring. Boring. _

Was all he thought through the morning classes that Monday morning. Techno liked school (as much as one person could, of course), but when there was a huge thing currently being planned, he could not contain his boredom. He could be planning for something more exciting, but  _ no _ . He can’t because he’s  _ at school _ . Techno had so many ideas in his head, and he tried to write down them before they flew out of his head like a peregrine falcon—too quickly to remember what was there when it was there.

By the time lunch came around, his legs bounced, his pencil tapped rapidly against whatever surface closest to him, and he was more intrigued with twirling a loose strand of hair around his pinkie than what his Mythology teacher was explaining. And that was  _ unnatural _ . Finally,  _ finally _ , the lunch bell rang.

Hurriedly, he gathered his things, racing out of the classroom and to the library. He was the first one there today, it happened pretty often since he never bothered with going to the cafeteria to get his lunch. Tommy would go there with Tubbo and stall by yelling at people before getting his food. Tubbo always went with but never got food, he brought his lunch. Wilbur would often head to the vending machine by the cafeteria, but he also brought food along. Typically, he’d get a bag of chips (Wilbur called them crisps, but Techno ignored him).

Two minutes later, Wilbur arrived, giving the librarian a quick greeting before taking his seat on Techno’s right. Tubbo sat across from Techno, and Tommy sat next to him. He set his bag on the floor, and his food on the table. Once this was completed, he stretched, loudly moaning. The next moment he was complaining to Techno about P.E.

“See, Wilbur, I don't care,” Techno interrupted.

Wilbur looked at him with the look of someone who was just told they had to have their child taken away because they were too poor to care for it. “What!?” He would’ve continued on, but Tommy and Tubbo chose this moment to show up. Immediately stopping the arguing because Tommy was making a louder racket. Wilbur still shot him a glare.

“Look, I just don’t see the point of existing if you’re just going to sleep through it!” Tommy exclaimed, the sweet librarian didn’t bother to quiet him. Sadly.

_ Talking about George, I see. _

“For extra credit,” Techno explained.

“What?” Tubbo questioned, taking his lunch from his backpack. His mom still packed it for him and put a little note in there too.

“Don’t worry about it, Tubbo,” Wilbur said. Tubbo nodded as Tommy and Techno began to argue over what consisted of extra credit and whether or not to do it.

“It’s useless!” Tommy argued, waving his hands about as soon as he had shoved a chunk of his sandwich into his mouth. Ah yes, the courtesy of talking with food in your mouth. It was Technoblade’s favorite thing to see.

“No, it’s not! You’re doing more work—it really isn’t that much—for extra points that can up your horrible grades,” Techno countered, voice rising in octave.

“My grades are great, and I don’t need to write any essays for class…” Tommy paused, stopping his speaking and chewing. “...Boys, I think it’s time to start my essay.”

The three others at the table started laughing maniacally as Tommy reached into his backpack and pulled out his laptop. Laughs from the librarian’s desk were heard quietly too.

Tommy stayed mostly silent for the rest of lunch except for the occasional grumble or munching on his food before immediate complaints about the school’s food began. So, overall, not very quiet—to Techno. Tubbo was trying to help him, but Tommy kept denying his help then would immediately complain when he scooted away. Techno had finished his lunch quickly and pulled out his laptop, tracing the pig sticker on it as it booted up. Wilbur leaned over as he ate to look at what he was doing. He explained what he planned on doing to Wilbur, and they began to talk about it.

Technoblade wanted to get a headstart on planning for the performance, you could never be too prepared after all. The first order of business was outfitting. Since the groups were so different in style—Sleepy Bois Inc. had a chiller vibe with softer colors while the DreamTeam tended to wear brighter colors—they had to do some scheming to make them look cohesive. Not to mention that Techno wanted matching outfits for “Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels.” He felt that having the matching would look good with the nature and style of the choreography. Obviously, this would pose a problem, because Tommy wouldn’t be doing this dance and thus, wouldn’t have the same outfit (he wouldn’t want it anyway). Wilbur would help him with these dilemmas. They were the most fashionable out of their brothers, after all. Once they had gotten the confirmation for an outfit idea from Tommy and Philza, they’d move on to the DreamTeam. They also had to agree.

“Ooh…” Wilbur said as Techno wrote down ideas onto his notepad.

“Hmm?” he acknowledged.

“So the song is called ‘Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels', right?” Techno nodded absentmindedly. “Well, what if we did our nails, did something cool with our hair, uh… I got nothin’ for the hips part, but we could also wear heels.”

Techno made a quick note about this before raising his head and setting down his pen.

“Alright, any more elaboration? This could be a good idea.”

“It  _ is  _ a good idea! Tommy can—sort of—work with this one. We’ve painted his nails before and he enjoyed it, so I think it’s safe to say that he’d do it this time too.”

Tommy seemed to have heard his older brothers talking about him.

“You talkin’ smack about me?” he questioned, an attempt at menacing was made, but he was talking to his brothers. AKA people who didn’t find him menacing and never would. Tommy also just never has the capability to be menacing.

“No, Tommy, we’d never,” Techno deadpanned.

“You  _ were _ !”

“No, Tommy, we were literally talking about plans for the team-up thing with the DreamTeam,” Wilbur insisted.

Tubbo had always known about the Sleepy Bois Inc., he had in fact, come to many—most—of their performances. He didn’t go to the last one because his family was visiting his grandparents that weekend. He had heard all about the team-up thing from Tommy. Techno thought that Tommy had been texting Tubbo during the little “meeting” SBI and the DreamTeam had had at the cafe. It wouldn’t surprise him if Tommy had.

“Alright… I’ll believe you, just this once.” To Tubbo, Tommy whispered, “I don’t actually believe them, Big Law.”

“I figured,” Apparently Tubbo didn’t get the memo because he talked at a louder than usual tone, also deeper. “I know these things because I’m a lawyer.”

“That you are, Big Law!”

The two freshmen started a fit of laughing as Wilbur and Techno returned to their scheming and planning.

“Alright, we can do nails,” Techno relented. “What were you thinking about hair? Phil and I are really the only ones who can do much of anything with our hair.”

“Y’know, that’s a good question…” Wilbur replied. Techno sighed. “We’ll get Phil to figure something out. Mum might have an idea too.”

“We can do heels I suppose, as long as everyone else agrees. We’ll also have to switch between dances.”

“Alright! LET’S GO!”

This was the first time that day that the librarian discreetly shushed them. This was still a library after all.

More decisions that would have to be checked by the others were made. Color coordination was planned, and outfit possibilities covered a whole page of Techno’s notepad. His hand was tired and worn out by the end of lunch.

Minutes before the bell, they decided to be done. Techno released a big sigh and stretched, popping his back before popping his finger joints. Wilbur cringed at the sound.

“Stop.”

“No thanks,” Techno answered with a smile, popping his thumb closer to Wilbur’s ear.

Wilbur recoiled. “I don’t think I asked you if you wanted to.”

“And I never said I would.”

The bell rang. Automatically concluding the fighting, and declaring Technoblade as the winner. Internally, he cheered himself on. A pointless win, but it fueled his competitive nature.

As he shouldered on his backpack, he saw Wilbur throw him the middle finger as he ran out of the library. From the hall, he could hear Wilbur get yelled at for running in the halls. Serves him right.

Techno made his way to his next class, hearing whispers of the usual controversy.

He didn’t care though, little of it was about him, and the stuff that was was often denied vehemently by others so it was fine. Besides, his thoughts were consumed by other issues. Not only were thoughts and worries of the partnership plaguing his mind, but thoughts of Dream too.

His physical crush still seemed to exist, but it had changed somehow or another. Maybe it was getting to know Dream better. He wasn’t a bad person, not always Techno’s cup of tea, but it wasn’t like Techno had a strong hatred of him. He was friend material. Techno enjoyed his company too, maybe they were just meant to be friends…

This thought seemed to cause a change in Technoblade, he caught it immediately and noticed the difference. Over the years, he had become one with his feelings and tried to understand himself to the best of his ability, an important skill with his social anxiety and such. The change worried him, what was causing it? There was no way that he wanted to have a crush on Dream when he himself was telling himself that he didn’t. It just didn’t make sense. It was practically impossible. He was contradicting himself!

He gritted his teeth in frustration but ignored his current situation. He was still at school and had class. In fact, he’d just arrived at his classroom and had work to do.

_ Until next time, strange thoughts. It’s Creative Writing time. _

This was when he realized the thoughts wouldn’t leave, especially when he had  _ this  _ class. Dream was in it.

Of course.

Techno was free, not from his thoughts, but from school. As much as he didn’t mind it and was fine with the work and learning aspects of it, there were still so many dislikable things about it. Alas, he would have to return the next day, but for now, he was free.

He was definitely not free from Tommy’s ear aching yelling. Why did he love his brother again?

“Oh, come on!” Tommy yelled, Techno poked his head out from his room. Phil had just gotten home from university. “Dream is such a bi-”

From upstairs Wilbur called down, “Shut it, child! Some of us are trying to do things!”

“You have your soundproof room! Go in there! I’m not done complainin’ about Dream and sh-”

This time it was Phil. “Shut it, you little shi-”

And he was interrupted by Techno’s phone ringing. Wilbur, who was once upstairs, was now peering around the corner with Phil and Tommy at Techno.

“I think your phone is ringing, big man.”

“Oh, is that mine?” Techno muttered absentmindedly.

He took the device from his pocket, noticing it was their mother calling, he accepted the call and put it onto speaker.

“Hey, Mother, you’re on speaker,” he greeted, making sure to let his mother know his brothers could also hear her.

“Hi, boys!” she exclaimed through the receiver. The other three brothers said their own greetings. “I can’t believe you didn’t bother calling your father and me after you got the partnership! You only messaged…”

“Sorry, Mum…” Phil said.

They had moved from standing to sitting in the living room. Tommy sat upside down on the chair, and Techno in between Wilbur and Phil on the couch.

“You better be. Anyway, we’ve started work on the choreography today. Well, I have, your father had meetings and rehearsals all day. He’s in a meeting right now. ‘Way Back Home’ looked good, we watched it yesterday.”

“When will you be back home?” Tommy asked. They all wanted to know, but Tommy asked first.

“Oh, sweethearts… Maybe a bit before Halloween? A bit after probably… We’re sorry boys, I know we’ve been gone long.”

“It’s alright…” Wilbur replied.

“When do you think you’ll be able to send the choreography back?” Techno asked in hopes to lighten the mood.

“A week and a half, hopefully. If we have surprise meetings or rehearsal goes long, it’ll be longer. We’ll try to have it done soon though. I know you guys are really looking forward to this.

“Have you been doing anything else exciting besides the partnership? I know that Techno has ballroom today, so I’ll try not to stay on the phone with you too long.”

“It’s fine, Mom. I can leave my phone here so you can talk with them and take Phil’s or somethin’.”

“Do you remember that Dream kid?” Phil started. Of course, he was going to tell their mother something that Techno wasn’t going to. “Well, he and Techno have been hanging out and talking together.”

The other three shot him smirks.

“Yeah, Dream and his two friends hung out with us yesterday at the park—before the meeting with the DreamTeam,” Wilbur continued.

“Mhm, they were all close and shi-” Tommy added before being cut off by their mother.

“Ah, ah! No cursing, Toms. You know the rules, mister.” Their mother was similar to Techno. A lot of the time she didn’t mind cursing, but sometimes she’d tell her children off for cursing. Mostly Tommy. “...I see… so Technoblade, you’ve been playing nice with Dream?”

Technoblade groaned. “Perhaps.”

“Ugh! You sound just like your father when you say that!” Phil and Wilbur laughed. “And you, Phil. You have his laugh! Tommy has his eyes and Wilbur has his hair, so what did I give you!? Nothing. I don’t know how you’re my children…”

“Oh, come on, Mum. I wouldn’t call Dad too tall, so I say my six foot three coolness came from you.”

“First of all, you’re not six foot three, and I feel like that was an insult towards me.”

Their mom laughed. “Of course, I completely forgot that Tommy and I are practically identical aside from the eyes. How could I be so blind?”

No one mentioned the fact that she had barely seen anything of Tommy—or any of them—since the beginning of October.

“How’s Spain been?” Wilbur asked after a moment of silence.

“Oh! It’s been nice. The next day where we don’t have any meetings or rehearsals is when we’re going sight-seeing a bit. We’ll also work on your stuff then too. What we’ve seen in Barcelona is very pretty. Since the Institute of the Arts Barcelona isn’t close to the main part of Barcelona we haven’t gone into it at all. Hopefully, we will on Wednesday. That’s when neither of us has meetings or rehearsals.

“We’ve gone to Sant Pere de Ribes though. Saw the castle. It was pretty cool, and we took some pictures. I’ll show you them when we get back. Club de Golf Terramar also happened! We played with a few of our favorite students at the institute. It was fun!”

“Mom, picking favorites? Again?”

“Techno, it’s kind of hard when you have had so many students that there’s gotta be some favorites.”

“Sure, but we’re still your favorites.”

“You mean  _ I’m  _ their favorite. I don’t know why anyone’d like you, Wilbur.”

Wilbur jumped at Tommy, hitting him on the shoulder, and Tommy hit right back. Phil got off the couch and pulled the two away from each other just as Tommy was going to bite Wilbur’s arm.

“Are they fighting?” she asked Techno with a sigh.

“Yes…” he answered.

“Is Phil splitting them up?”

“Yes…”

“Is it time for you to get ready for practice?”

“Uh…” Techno checked the time on his phone. “...Yes.”

“Well, Technoblade, I’ll talk to you later. Pass the phone to Phil and take his to practice, I want to talk with them longer. Love you, honey!”

“Bye, Mom. See you soon.”

After a moment, Wilbur and Tommy were sitting on opposite sides of the room, pouting. Phil took his spot on the couch again as Techno stood.

“Is it time for you to go?” Phil asked.

“Yeah, can I have your phone?”

“Sure, give me a sec.” Phil opened up his phone, typed in the password, and sent someone a message quickly. “Here ya go.”

Techno took the phone, sticking it into his back pocket.

“Ooh… making sure your girlfriend doesn't send any pics while Techno has the phone, huh Phil?” Wilbur observed.

Laughs from the phone sitting on the couch cushion sounded.

“For goodness sake, Wil! Can I not have one private thing in my life?”

“No. We’re your brothers. We’re  _ supposed  _ to know,” Tommy corrected.

Phil groaned, and Techno left the room.

“Yeah, Phil did ask his girlfriend not to send any messages because I have the phone,” Techno called into the living room.

A nondescript shout came from there as he quickly ran into his bedroom and slammed the door behind him.

He looked around quickly, taking in his surroundings to ground himself. Most of the time he grounded himself when he was feeling weird or upset or something, but right now, after talking to his mother, Technoblade would consider it a prime time to do this. He loved talking to his mom, but the fact that she and his father were around so little made him upset. He let out one final breath before returning to what he was doing.

His dressy ballroom dancing shoes had a slight heel (half an inch) and were suede leather (best for dancing). Sometimes, for Latin dances, he’d wear shoes with a slightly higher heel, but they were currently not doing Latin stuff, so those sat in his wardrobe. Techno picked them up from beside his wardrobe, setting them into his dance bag.

Then, he changed into some black dress pants and a white t-shirt. He felt way more comfortable walking around outside wearing this rather than tights, so he wouldn’t put on anything besides a jacket over what he already had on. It’d be hard to put something on over dress pants anyway.

Once that was finished, he brought his bag and thought he might as well take one of the several dirty mugs out of his room, so he did. He headed to the kitchen with both the items. He’d only brought one mug and stuck it in the sink, someone else could deal with it. Actually, he probably would because he needed to eat dinner before heading to ballroom. Dancing hungry was not recommended—even though many dancers fasted to make themselves “look good” for ballet and other forms of dance. Techno only followed a diet, which he and Wilbur tended to stray away from frequently. They kept it together when their parents were there though, luckily.

From the fridge, he took two bottles of water and tossed them into his bag, along with a granola bar in case he got hungry. Going back into the fridge, Technoblade dug around for something to eat. He saw some leftovers and took that out. It was stuff from Saturday. They had baked salmon as a “victory dinner” for their success at the performance that afternoon. The cake they had gotten was finished that night, and the green beans they’d had along with it were finished off on Sunday.

Techno put the salmon in the microwave before taking a plate and cup from the cabinet. He filled the cup with water before returning to the fridge for fruit. They typically kept an assortment of fruit in the house, along with vegetables, but the brothers preferred fruit. Especially Tommy. That guy  _ hated  _ vegetables. Today, Techno took a package of raspberries out and poured some into a bowl. After putting the OG container back, he rinsed his off.

The microwave had stopped a bit ago, so he pulled the salmon out and set it onto his plate before bringing it into the dining room to eat at the table.

Technoblade was now on his way to MCYT Dance Studio, but first, he had to stop by Ranboo’s house to walk with him. For being an unnaturally tall boy, Ranboo was also unnaturally afraid of walking alone through the town. He didn’t even like the short minutes from when Eret and Techno split from him on the way home. Techno mostly thought it was because he was scared of the dark, but Ranboo denied this fervently.

He reached the stoop, and one of Ranboo’s mothers opened the door.

“Hello, Technoblade!” she greeted. “Ranboo is in the bathroom right now, he’ll be out in a minute. Do you want to come in?”

“Ah… N-no thank you, ma’am,” Techno stammered. Going into friends’ houses was weird without them, and he’d only have to wait a few minutes. Like Ranboo’s mom said, he wouldn’t be long.

“Aw… Techno, you don’t have to be so polite. You know this.”

Techno sighed. “Sorry…”

“You don’t have to apologize!”

From the inside of the house, presumably from the kitchen, a shout was heard. “Is Techno being too polite again!?” That was Ranboo’s other mom. Most people called her Mammy because that was what Ranboo called her when he was younger. He couldn’t produce Mommy, and it just stuck. He still calls her that, along with his friends.

“Yes.”

‘Techno! Stop that!”

“Yes, ma’am…”

A groan was heard, but also a door opening. Ranboo was done in the bathroom. He saw Techno at the door.

“Hi, Techno! Wait just another minute, I need to get my bag from my room,” Ranboo called.

Techno nodded, but he knew it went unseen because Ranboo was already running up the stairs to his room. A minute later, Ranboo returned and his mom left the doorway. She had been trying to make conversation with Techno but was failing with Techno’s social anxiety. Luckily, Ranboo understood. After all, they were both socially awkward!

“Hello again.”

Hullooo…” Techno greeted as Ranboo shut the door.

“How are you doing?”

“Good, good… What’s that scratch from?” Techno pointed to a scratch on Ranboo’s neck, near his chin.

“Oh… yeah. When Tommy and I went to the llama petting zoo one scratched me… Somehow. I am officially  _ terrified  _ of them.”

“Canon death!” Techno laughed.

“No…” Ranboo looked up to the sky. It had been cloudy all that day and was supposed to stay like that for most of the week at least. “I hope it doesn’t rain…”

“There’s a small percentage on Tuesday, more likely on Wednesday, but not today. You’re fine.”

“Phew… Thank goodness.” Techno could’ve sworn he heard Ranboo mutter that he was, in fact, not fine, but he ignored this. Friends' well-being? Hah.

The rest of the walk was filled with silence—mostly—allowing Techno to think for a moment.

He knew that Dream had hip-hop today, instantly thinking back to last Tuesday. He blushed, Techno couldn’t believe he would ever do something like that. Moving on from that embarrassing moment, he thought of Sunday. He and Dream had a genuinely good time hanging out and talking about ballet. Dream seemed truly interested in what Techno had to say. And he was talking about ballet! Something Dream wasn’t known for enjoying, but he listened to Techno attentively when he was talking about something he was passionate about. It made Technoblade excited for the future of their relationship. (And what came after the current relationship.)

Techno didn’t know how long they had spent talking about dance—they had moved on from ballet and its positions at some point, but it was still Techno talking about what something he enjoyed—and he didn’t particularly care. It had been a great time. An opportunity, some would say. Actually, Sun Tzu had a quote about this—sort of.

_ Opportunities multiply as they are seized… _ _   
_ _ \- Sun Tzu, The Art of War _

_ Does this mean there are going to be more opportunities to talk to Dream in this way? _

_ Totally. _

_ Maybe. _

_ I hope not. _

Techno shook his head lightly, sometimes, his head seemed to speak for itself instead of his own thoughts. Like it was its own entity. Weird. Right?

He hoped more opportunities arose, he didn’t think he’d be able to initiate one too well. He hoped Dream could be more forward than he was. Techno knew that there were always two sides of a friendship, and both sides had to contribute to maintain it. He would, but he wasn’t going to be the one contributing by initiating conversation unless it was paramount to his success in life. He would contribute by being the funniest person ever and adding stupid things to conversation, butting in when not needed. You know, the best kind of contribution.

Techno had a whole lot of fun talking about something he loved with someone he lo- someone he enjoyed spending time with and wanted to get to know better. Maybe, next time Dream could talk about something he really liked and was invested in. That could be fun. Basically, what Techno has been trying to say this whole time is that he is in lov- he is glad that he and Dream are getting closer.

_ And that concludes the first episode of  _ Technoblade’s Thoughts with Technoblade  _ (and the voices) _ !

They had now arrived at the dressing room for the ballroom section of the dance studio. Each section seemed to have a different means of changing room forms. Ballet had the closet-bathroom-thing, and ballroom had the dressing room. Techno believed that the hip-hop section had a locker room. He ignored the contemporary dancers. They didn’t exist, the form didn’t exist, and was not there.

Eret had ballet starting fifteen minutes earlier than Techno and Ranboo’s ballroom class, but they’d still walk home together. Sometimes, Ranboo and Techno would join Eret on the way to MCYT, and just wait a few minutes for their class to start. Don’t question why that didn’t today.

Eret was more invested in ballet than Wilbur and Techno. He had practice four times a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Ranboo was more invested in ballroom dancing than Techno. He had practice three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If Techno only did one form of dancing then maybe he’d be more invested in one and do it more, but because he did three types, he couldn’t concentrate on one any more than the other without not having any breaks. He needed the breaks he got on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Besides, usually, on Saturdays Sleepy Bois Inc. would perform. That meant that Saturday wasn’t really a break for Techno.

Wilbur just wasn’t as invested in dancing. He had many other hobbies besides ballet and hip-hop. Music, writing, and video editing are just a few. That didn’t mean that Techno didn’t have other hobbies though. He also enjoyed writing and gaming.

Techno thought he’d continue with dancing—ballet at least—through his life. Not as a major in college or job, like his parents, but just for fun. He wanted to do English in college, dancing could be a side-chick.

Heading into the dressing room, he was greeted with the unmistakable sight of a Sonic plastered backpack. Connor. So he was back. He had been out sick for about two weeks, but now he was back.

Techno would talk to him later, maybe they could play some Pokemon or something, right now he had to get his jacket off and put on his suede shoes. He went over to a bench and sat down, whipping his jacket off and pushing his right shoe off with the toes of his left foot. Of course, he did it at the same time. Why wouldn’t he? He knew he could mess his shoes up like that, but he wasn’t even wearing his Converse. It was just a random pair of tennis shoes. He didn’t even think they were his, maybe Phil’s?

Once his nice shoes were on his feet, he headed into the washroom attached to the dressing room. It wasn’t a bathroom, it just had a row of sinks and mirrors. Techno tried not to go into public bathrooms wearing these shoes, he didn’t want them to get gross or dirty, and it was just better to not use public bathrooms. They were kind of nasty. He had used the bathroom at home. Ranboo did the same. What a smart boy!

He went to a sink and mirror in the middle of the row. Pulling a black hair tie off his wrist, Technoblade deftly pulled his hair into a loose ponytail—he knew it wouldn't slip—at the base of his neck. It wasn’t proper for him to let his hair flow freely when ballroom dancing, and it would be a nuisance to have down while dancing. It’d get in his way, blind him, make sweat accumulate on his neck, and mess up his partners too. Then he left the washroom.

As he walked out, he passed Schlatt, the guy he knew with heart problems. An interesting guy, really. Real business-like, but only a senior in high school. Techno didn’t know whether to feel annoyed at his dumb jokes and punch him or to laugh heartily.

“Hey, Technoblade! What’s up with you?” he asked. Also invasive sometimes.

“Hullooo, Schlatt. Not much, what about you?”

“Oh! I’m good, I’m good. Didja hear about the torture?”

“What?” Techno stopped Schlatt from answering, somehow, he had a feeling of the turn this conversation would take. Wilbur was better suited to hang out with this guy than Technoblade. “-Actually, no, stop there. I don’t want to hear it.”

Just as Schlatt was going to say something more, Techno walked away, leaving the scene.

He went back over to the wall where he had set his bag. Picking it up, he began a steady walk to the main ballroom studio for their group. It was a large room with a chandelier hanging from the center. Techno didn’t understand why it was so fancy for a class of—mostly—high school students. Nonetheless, that wasn’t what Techno paid attention to, instead, he went over to the wall where several small bags already sat. They lined up their bags out here instead of in the two dressing rooms so as to not clutter them. Along this wall, he found where Ranboo had set his bag, and set his beside it. Opening it, he pulled both the water bottles out and set them on top of the bag for easy access.

Techno then found his spot in the room. No one around him, nor his partner was in the room yet. They had been working on a Viennese Waltz. It wasn’t Techno’s favorite thing, he preferred a fast-paced foxtrot or quickstep, but they were also going to be doing a tango this season and a mystery dance so it was all okay.

The Viennese Waltz is referred to as the “old-schooled” waltz, and it was in 3/4 time.

Techno’s partner was a senior named Puffy. Sometimes it was awkward to dance with her because of the height difference. Most of the time, their instructor would try and even these differences out by putting shorter ladies with shorter men and taller men with taller ladies. By the time he had finished up most of the groups, Puffy and Techno were left partnered in the end.

Neither minded though, they were friendly with each other, and Puffy had met up with Techno a lot for school projects in their Philosophy class and Mythology classes when they were allowed to choose partners. That didn’t happen a lot in Philosophy with The Missus commanding.

She arrived a few minutes later, standing next to Techno and facing the front of the room, and waiting for their instructor. He tended to show up a bit later than the students, yet he was just as strict with them about arriving on time as The Missus. He reasoned that his lateness was always caused by unstoppable forces like traffic and not being able to find a parking spot (there were always so many spots open). He was still a good teacher, so Techno stayed. He also wouldn't leave Ranboo to fend for himself in this class and got to take the younglings with, even if Technoblade pretends to hate them all.

What he would do for those younglings… 

“Hello, Techno!” Puffy exclaimed in greeting.

Today, she wore a simple quarter-length-sleeved white top with ruffles and a black skirt. Typically, she’d be wearing something with rainbows, but during ballroom, she couldn’t because of dress-codes and the like. She did have a rainbow headband pulling her hair back though.

“Hullooo… How are you doin?’” Techno asked politely.

“Good! Philza tells me that you and Dream are getting along nicely.”

Technoblade groaned. “How many people is he goin’ to tell?”

“My little duckling probably would’ve told me anyway.”

“Your what?”

“Nevermind. You had a writing assignment with him last week, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I’d say it went pretty well. We got an A on it.”

“Yeah, that’s what Dream told me.” A moment of pause to change the subject and Puffy was talking again. “Ugh… I hope the mystery dance is a salsa. Those are so much fun! Man… salsa sounds good right now.”

“Nah, I think a foxtrot or quickstep would be better, but salsa does sound good. We’re definitely not allowed to have it right now though.”

“You always think that.”

“I know.” Techno wasn’t fond of change. Constant was good, consistency was good. Improvement was the only kind of change that was good, so if he’d improve, Techno would gladly change but that’s it.

About three minutes later, their instructor arrived. He called for attention and everyone began to adjust.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Good evening, good evening. Did anyone stretch?” he asked.

Murmurs of no and shakings of people’s heads occurred throughout the room.

He sighed. “People! I’m late, but that doesn’t mean you can slack. Start stretching!”

Grumbles were heard, but few people did complain. Techno didn’t.

Puffy and Techno stepped away from each other to have plenty of room to stretch. Techno easily knew the proper stretching routine for ballroom, he had memorized it. He had memorized the ones from hip-hop and ballet too. So, he knew he could space off while doing these stretches, so he did.

Techno took stock of his current relationship with Dream first. They were definitely friends now. Techno was almost certain that they both would consider each other friends. He felt they were at that level now. He enjoyed his company, and Dream enjoyed his (he thinks). He hopes Dream and him will get closer. Techno still thought of Dream as cute, or hot, or nice-looking, or whatever word you want to use. He knew that Dream knew he was hot. He knew that others knew Dream was hot. Did he like that? He wasn’t sure, but what he did know was that Phil and the rest of his family may be a bit too spot-on. Techno knew that they weren’t saying exactly what they thought about Dream and Techno’s relationship, but Techno had a feeling he knew what they thought.

They thought that Techno liked Dream. And honestly? They might be right. Techno knew that Dream wouldn’t want to date him, he had George, or Sapnap, or literally anyone else. Wasn't there some girl named Cynthia that was in love with Dream? Didn’t she like porcelain to the whole school that she was? Whatever she had said, Techno didn’t like it.

Techno knew that he would deny any and all claims about him liking Dream or Dream liking him. It just wasn’t feasible for Dream to like him, and he didn’t want others knowing his feelings. He could deal with them himself.

He was officially done with this thinking. He needed something different.

_ Sleepy Bois Inc., yes! That’s a great choice, thanks. _

He seemed to have thought about this a lot recently, but he needed to, the partnership was huge in their career and Techno wanted it to go as well as it could.

Techno didn’t know a whole lot about the DreamTeam, but he hoped he’d learn more soon because he’d have to make conversation with them at some point. He only knew what the public knew. He supposed that that was probably enough, and they also probably didn't know a whole lot about SBI either. Honestly, though, Technoblade had a feeling that they knew more about them because the Sleepy Bois—besides Techno—didn’t act too differently from normal. Techno didn’t know if the DreamTeam played anything up a lot because he didn’t know who they were outside of the DreamTeam.

There were Snapmap and Gogy. Their “leader” didn’t have a name that anyone knew, but the Sleepy Bois needed to call him something. Someone else—probably Wilbur or Tommy—would come up with something. Techno tried to think about what he knew about these characters based on yesterday. He knew what they’d ordered at the cafe and a general idea of what songs they liked based on the suggestions thrown out that day. Not a lot. He knew they were friends with Bad in “IRL” (outside of just performing). They knew Skeppy too, and they were around their age. Maybe Techno knew more than he thought he did… 

Technoblade only just realized that he could probably, with this information alone, figure out who was under the mask. Who was the DreamTeam, really? At this realization, Techno almost fell on his butt from his current stretch position. Luckily, he caught himself and only received a few looks. Puffy also asked him if he was okay, but that was Puffy so it was fine.

He knew he wouldn’t though. He wouldn’t disrespect someone’s privacy like that. It didn’t matter if they could be a group of serial killers or something. It wasn’t a nice thing to do either way. Technoblade wouldn't do it because he knew he wouldn’t like it if someone did it to him.

Techno had morals and he wouldn’t go against them, that much was true.

You know… Techno just noticed something.  _ Dream _ … and the  _ Dream _ Team. Heh. Isn’t that interesting?

Huh. Anyway, back to stretching.

**In the long run, the most unpleasant truth is a safer companion than a pleasant falsehood.** **  
** **\- Theodore Roosevelt**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, feel free to leave comments. I love reading them! I hope you're enjoying this work. I've tried to put lots of effort into it!
> 
> Self Promo:  
> Twitter: FakeK or my @ FaketheKay (https://twitter.com/FaketheKay)  
> Also do other Sleepy Bois Inc. (/p) stuff! (Currently working on one called Truths of Technoblade.)

**Author's Note:**

> Just to let you know, I know absolutely nothing about dancing, ballet, or hip-hop. If someone would like to educate me, please do! (I'm in band, not dance...) Please LMK if there are any mistakes!
> 
> Will (hopefully) be updated every week and a half.


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